Mining contractor Perenti announced that its surface mining subsidiary in Africa, African Mining Services (AMS), has been awarded the contract for open pit mining services at the Sandfire Resources A4 open pit within the larger Motheo copper mine in Ghanzi, Botswana. The contract is valued at $235 million over a term of 73 months.
Under the terms of the contract, AMS will deliver all surface mining services associated with development and production activities at the A4 open pit, which is located approximately 8 km to the west of the Sandfire’s existing T3 Open Pit, where AMS has successfully progressed from development into production works. Perenti anticipates A4 pre-production and development work to commence in September 2023, with pre-strip mining to start in October 2023.
“We are excited about the opportunity to expand our partnership with Sandfire Resources,” said Mark Norwell, managing director and CEO for Perenti. “Motheo is a long-life asset in the Kalahari copper belt, and the expansion of our role here is in keeping with our strategy of disciplined growth within top-tier mining jurisdictions with high-quality partners. Sandfire is now one of our largest clients and over the term of the combined contracts, the T3 and A4 open pits are expected to generate total revenue of more than A$1.1 billion.”
The T3 and A4 open pits are expected to be operated as a larger, integrated mining operation and therefore will leverage the resulting benefits of scale and the operational synergies to optimize the return on capital aligned with our financial targets, Perenti said. The primary synergies include the optimization of existing infrastructure, mining equipment, maintenance facilities and both technical and operational management.
