Swick drilling picks up

Revenues at Swick Mining Services are up, in another sign of a strengthening mining sector, with managing director Kent Swick saying the new financial year had brought some optimism.

"There appears to be a change in sentiment in the mineral drilling market, with clients generally indicating that more drilling will be undertaken than there has been of recent years," Mr Swick said.

Swick’s revenue for the September quarter is up 5 per cent from last year to $36.4 million, according to unaudited figures released in the company’s operations update today.

Total drilling for the quarter also increased 5 per cent to 331,000 metres year on year.

A total of 58 rigs from the 75-strong fleet were operating in the field as of September 30 2017.

Five underground drilling rigs were released from Golden Grove in July after Swick negotiated an early end to what it described as a low-margin contract. This exit coupled with more recently priced contracts helped revenue per metre drilled to increase 11 per cent year on year to $113.

Mr Swick said there was a significant opportunity at Olympic Dam, where the Swick mobile rig is being assessed, for the rigs from Golden Grove.

In May Swick raised $5 million to buy-out minority interests in Orexplore, a developer of portable mineral scanning technology.

The company said Orexplore was a world-first technology that allowed for instant, non-destructive, on-site analysis of drill cores that would support faster and more precise drill program and mine planning decisions.

The first two base metal scanning machines available for commercial use will arrive in Perth in November and be demonstrated to the industry over coming months.

Shares in Swick were flat at 27.5c at noon.