Pindan wins $90m Rio works

Pindan has been awarded a $90 million contract for the construction of an operations village for Rio Tinto’s Koodaideri iron ore project, with the announcement coming less than a week after Oxley Holdings acquired full ownership of the contractor.

The contract involves the design and construction of accommodation for the project’s main village.

This encompasses 470 rooms, eight laundries, a 1,200-person kitchen and dining hall, gymnasium, recreation building with cafe and alfresco space, administration office, and general shop.

This latest award builds on Pindan’s presence at Koodaideri, with the group having been awarded an enabling works contract in December 2018 for the first stage of the Koodaideri village.

This $45 million contract was completed in June and created 150 jobs.

Pindan Contracting managing director Tony Gerber said the company was pleased to continue to support Rio Tinto’s Koodaideri project on construction of the Koodaideri village.

“We have a long history of working with Rio Tinto and working in the Pilbara and we’re looking forward to partnering on this next phase of construction of the Koodaideri Village,” he said.

“We expect this contract will provide 350 jobs over 12 months, which is great news for the region.”

Pindan has constructed 14 accommodation villages in the Pilbara during the past eight years, including Rio Tinto’s 496-room Yandi Sustaining Project at the Yandicoogina mine site.

The $US2.6 billion Koodaideri project in the Pilbara is expected to commence in late 2021.

Earlier this week, it was announced that Singaporean development group Oxley Holdings had acquired full ownership of Pindan for zero cost, after cancelling around $24 million in debt while also disclosing that the local contractor had failed to meet performance targets.

Oxley announced to the Singapore Stock Exchange that it had acquired around 45 million shares from three unnamed directors of Pindan for nil consideration, as settlement for the local contractor failing to meet performance targets.