Macmahon wins Telfer mining contract

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Australian gold miner Newcrest Mining has awarded a mining contract at its Telfer mine, in Western Australia, to project house Macmahon Holdings.

Newcrest in September decided to retain ownership of the Telfer openpit mine, but took the decision to move to contract mining in an effort to save costs.

Macmahon would provide a full scope of openpit mining and bulk earthworks services, including drill and blast, mining of waste materials, equipment hire and subcontractor management.

The contract anticipated the movement of an average of 35-million tonnes of material a year from the two openpit mines, and Macmahon was expecting to generate revenue of some A$62-million a year from the contract.

Operations were scheduled to start in February and the contract could be rolled out until 2022.