The Lord Byron supply agreement has been provided under a comprehensive executed strategic framework agreement for an initial five-year period and extension options for the Goldfields Hub operations.
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- Brightstar has executed a strategic framework agreement (SFA) with Aquarion Limited (ASX: AQN) (Aquarion) for the supply of all drilling and energetic services for open pit mining.
- The scope of the SFA is limited to the Goldfields Hub for an initial period of up to five years
- In addition to the SFA, an initial three-year agreement for the supply of all drill and blast services has been executed with Aquarion’s wholly owned subsidiary Drillforce WA Pty Ltd (Drillforce) for the Lord Byron open pit mine, with the target of commencing operations in 2H’CY26.
- Drillforce provides a fully integrated offering across the drill and blast value chain, including:
- A proprietary technology that incorporates the automatic Collar Keeper® system on the all-new Epiroc T45 drill and blast rigs;
- Western Australia’s largest independent energetic materials manufacturing and storage facility for mining applications in Wubbin, WA.
- Drillforce’s patented technology underpins the value proposition for BrightStar, achieving a balance between fragmentation and ore protection, which is expected to minimize mining dilution and optimize revenues, costs and ore recovery.
- Optimized blasting practices enable reduced ore dilution, improved digging productivity and lower load and haulage costs in open pit mining.
- Eliminating the PVC piping traditionally used in the blasthole also reduces direct costs and reduces potential blockages in the processing circuit and crusher downtime.
- Drillforce’s automated design also reduces human time spent outside the drill rig, improving the safety environment for those operators within the open pit.
Alex Rovira, Managing Director of Brightstar, commented:
“We are excited to partner with Aquarion for its open pit drill and blast services for the Goldfields Hub. Aquarion’s vertically integrated business and patented technology provide a material value proposition for BrightStar, with a strong operational focus on ore protection during the drill and blast sequence, which is expected to deliver material benefits to BrightStar’s open pit mining operations.
Importantly, Aquarion’s emphasis on accuracy, data-driven execution and safety performance is expected to support superior blast performance, optimize material movement and contribute to disciplined cost control, which are key drivers of sustainable production and margin performance to maximize value in our operations.
In addition to maximizing the performance of our already defined open pit development, Brightstar continues to assess opportunities to potentially increase the size of the Lord Byron open pit mine, which was featured in DFS2.0, as opposed to the currently defined mine plan.
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