Mining services company Perenti on Monday announced that its Barminco subsidiary had been awarded a new development contract with ASX-listed Spartan Resources and extensions to four existing projects.

Barminco will construct an underground exploration drill drive at Spartan’s Dalgaranga gold project, in Murchison, Western Australia.

The contract, which is valued at A$18.3-million, provides for 2 350 m of development to deliver twin decline access for the establishment of underground drilling platforms to in fill and extend mineralisation within the Never Never, Pepper, Four Pillars and West Winds areas.

We are delighted to have Barminco on board to complete the construction of this new drill drive, which represents a very exciting initiative that will enable us to drill from platforms located right alongside our high-grade deposits and targets. This will provide for cheaper, more accurate and quicker drilling to continue to accelerate our resource growth and conversion to ore reserves.

“All of the high-grade deposits and prospects discovered at Dalgaranga over the past two years remain
open at depth – with mineralisation at the Never Never deposit now defined to beyond one kilometre below surface – and we’re very excited to get the underground rigs in place to help determine just how deep this high-grade mineralisation extends.

“Importantly, the drill drive is being constructed using the same dimensions as a standard underground
mine development, ensuring it can be incorporated into our infrastructure planning for the future re-
commencement of mining operation," said Spartan MD and CEO Simon Lawson.

Construction is set to start in the current quarter and will take ten months to complete. The contract will use a combination of existing capital equipment and an additional A$5-million of new growth capital.

Further, Perenti announced that Barminco had signed extensions for two Endeavour Mining contracts in Burkina Faso, an existing copper and gold underground project in Canada, and two Australian projects – one for IGO at Spotted Quoll and the other for Aeris at Mt Collin.

In combination, these projects will contribute about A$160-million of revenue in the 2025 financial year.

"The greenfield underground at Dalgaranga project is an exciting opportunity. The resource has the potential to grow into a high-grade gold mine and we look forward to supporting Spartan Resources to achieve their targets during the months ahead," commented Perenti MD and CEO Mark Norwell.

He added that the four contract extensions were an example of the 90%-plus success rate of the contract mining division in extending and renewing contracts.

Perenti contract mining president Gabrielle Iwanow commented that Barminco was looking forward to working with Spartan on the Dalgaranga project.