Australia-based mining services company Perenti has secured a contract extension worth A$450m ($299.4m) for AngloGold Ashanti’s Sunrise Dam underground gold mine in Western Australia.
Awarded to Perenti’s underground mining business Barminco, the mining services contract extension is for a term of three years. The extended contract is slated to become effective on 1 October 2024.
Under its terms, Barminco will deliver underground development, production as well as mining support services for the Western Australian underground gold mine.
The Australian mining services company said that no new growth capital expenditure is required for the contract extension.
Perenti managing director and CEO Mark Norwell said: “AngloGold Ashanti is one of our largest clients, and we are proud to have worked with them for the past 20 years.
“Perenti has an excellent track record at extending existing contracts which we attribute to our collaborative relationship with our clients. Successful maintenance of our long-term relationships ultimately supports our business, as continuation of contracts does not require the upfront capital expenditure of new contracts.
“Ultimately this supports generation of free cash flow which continues to be a key focus of our strategy.”
Located in the Goldfields, 220km northeast of Kalgoorlie, and 55km south of Laverton, the Sunrise Dam gold mine is also an open pit operation.
Ore from the underground mine is supplemented by low-grade stockpiles from the open-cut mining to keep the processing plant at capacity.
The 4.1 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) processing plant includes conventional gravity and carbon-in-leach (CIL) circuits, as well as a flotation and fine grind circuit.
The open pit production at the Western Australian gold mine began in 1997. Completion of the main pit at a final depth of 500m below the surface was achieved in 2014.
In 2003, underground mining commenced at the Sunrise Dam gold mine by deploying various mining methods based on the style of mineralisation and grade of the geological domain.
