Under the contract, Action Drill & Blast will provide services such as ore, waste, pre-split, and RC grade control drilling along with loading, stemming, and initiation of bulk explosives
Talison Lithium Australia awards A$300m contract to Action Drill & Blast. (Credit: Khusen Rustamov from Pixabay)
Action Drill & Blast, a fully-owned subsidiary of NRW, has been awarded a A$300m ($202m) contract by Talison Lithium Australia for drill and blast services at the Greenbushes lithium mine located in Western Australia.
The contract, which is for an initial period of seven years, can be extended for an additional two years.
The drill and blast services are expected to begin in July 2023.
Under the contract, Action Drill & Blast will provide services such as ore, waste, pre-split, and RC grade control drilling along with loading, stemming, and initiation of bulk explosives.
The Greenbushes lithium mine is located approximately 250km south of Perth within the Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes. The lithium mine is undergoing an expansion which is expected to increase the production capacity at the mine to 1.34 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of lithium concentrates.
The project is being developed by Talison Lithium Australia, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Windfield Holdings.
According to NRW, the drill and blast services contract has been awarded to Action Drill & Blast following its longstanding relationship with Talison Lithium that started with the drill and blast activities on site in 2011.
The drilling and blasting service provider aims to fund the plant requirements for the project along with the new equipment expenditure of about A$30m ($20.2m) from within the Action Drill & Blast business over the life of the contract.
The contract work is expected to involve nearly 160 employees, which includes the 56 people, who are presently employed on site.