Thiess wins underground contracts, renews AECI alliance

Thiess underground mining business PYBAR has confirmed new work in Victoria and Tasmania, Australia. Meanwhile, a long-term operating alliance with global explosives supplier AECI will continue to the end of 2030.

Australian junior Southern Cross Gold Consolidated said last month it had engaged PYBAR to develop its proposed A$30 million exploration decline at the Sunday Creek gold-antimony project.

Also in Victoria, Agnico Eagle contracted PYBAR to supply raise boring and shaft-lining services at the Fosterville gold mine.

A two-year contract extension at Hong Kong-listed MMG’s Rosebery polymetallic mine in Tasmania’s west was said to cover shotcrete and cemented rockfill services.

MMG said last month it had cut a new portal for the first time in 30 years at the 90-year-old operation. Its “multi-million-dollar”, circa-1km-long Tom McDonald portal and decline – named after the prospector who discovered Rosebery in 1893 – would enable first underground drilling of a “promising resource area”, Rosebery mine general manager Steve Scott said.

Scott said the decline was being delivered in partnership with PYBAR.

Thiess group executive and chair Michael Wright said the Rosebery, Sunday Creek and Fosterville contracts were helping to expand the group’s portfolio and commodity mix. “These awards reinforce PYBAR’s position as a partner of choice for complex, high‑value underground projects that are critical to Australia’s economic and energy future,” he said. 

Meanwhile, extension of Thiess’ joint operating agreement with South African-based AECI Mining Explosives at the Lake Vermont, Olive Downs and Mount Pleasant coal mines continued an Australian partnership that started in 2015. The two groups began working together in Indonesia before that.

“Thiess takes a strategic approach to supplier partnerships, working with specialist providers such as AECI to deliver tailored blasting solutions aligned to site-specific geological conditions and production requirements,” Thiess group executive – Australia East, Rae O’Brien, said.

“This collaboration optimises blast design, improves predictability in blasted ground response and enables safe, consistent and efficient operations.”