Nationals target mining services

The rush to consolidate the minerals services sector continues unabated, with Cardno Ltd buying Buckland Engineers Australia, while Leighton Holdings Ltd negotiates to acquire Australian Mine Services Pty Ltd.

While the level of detail for both deals remains limited, they follow a trend of private sell-downs as national or international players look to increase their exposure to Western Australia’s booming resources sector.

Queensland-based Cardno said its new WA operation would trade as Cardo Buckland and was expected to contribute more than $6 million in revenue to the group annually.

Sydney-based Leighton would not comment on discussions under way with AMS, possibly through its Nedlands subsidiary HWE Mining Pty Ltd.

AMS co-founder Julie Smith-Massara, this year’s WA Business News 40under40 1st Amongst Equals winner, also could not comment on negotiations, though it is known staff have been informed.

AMS, a joint winner of the WA Business News Rising Star award last year, was founded in 2003 by Ms Smith-Massara and her husband, Ian Massara, growing strongly in the current environment to about 100 staff generating about $20 million a year in revenue.

Bayswater-based AMS provides specialist engineering design and maintenance services to the mining sector, including heavy earthmoving fabrication and bucket and tray rebuilding and repair.

The HWE business is operated by Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd, which also owns Perth-based Broad Construction Services Pty Ltd.

Mt Pleasant-headquartered Buckland has worked on significant projects such as OneSteel’s Magnet Magnetite Concentrator project in South Australia and the Browns Oxide Project for Compass Resources in the Northern Territory.

It is also working with ProMet Engineers and Gindalbie Metals on a bankable feasibility study, providing both civil and structural preliminary design services for the proposed $1.7 billion Karara magnetite project in the Mid-West.

Eleven-year-old Buckland, founded by engineers Les Wanke and Callum Neil, has 40 staff, which will take Cardno’s numbers in WA to about 150.

Other recent private mining – or minerals – processing-linked deals include Kwinana’s TCC Group’s sale for at least $85 million, Maddington-based minerals testing business Genalysis Laboratory Services Pty Ltd for $56 million, and Canning Vale-based Ultra Trace for more than $80 million.