AMCO strikes gold with African contract wins
YORKSHIRE construction and engineering contractor Amco has secured two significant new exploration drilling contracts in West Africa worth more than £50m.
Amco Drilling, a subsidiary of Amco Group, based in Barnsley said that the new contracts “provide a platform for substantial future growth for the company”.
The first contract is with the South African mining giant AngloGold Ashanti at its open-pit gold mine at Siguiri in Guinea.
Amco Drilling has been providing exploration and grade control drilling services at the mine since 2001 and the contract win will extend its activity at the site until the end of 2010.
The second contract for exploration drilling is with Red Back Mining at the Tasiast gold mine in Mauritania.
The combined turnover from these contracts is expected to exceed £20m per year and the company will be investing more than £2m in new drilling rigs and equipment over the period of the two contracts.
These awards follow quickly after the recent achievement of Amco Rail, which was successful in its tender for a £6m contract with Network Rail to refurbish the Bradway Tunnel in South Yorkshire, announced last month.
Managing director David Jackson said: “The group is well placed to capitalise on the current economic trends. The drilling division is clearly benefiting from the growth in world commodity demands.
“Our other principal business sectors, Energy, Rail and Specialist Engineering are also seeing increased activity generated through general infrastructure investment across both public and private sectors.”
Mr Jackson and finance director Ian Swire led the management buyout of Amco Group Limited in April 2008, with support from private equity house Endless.
