Suppliers news: DRA to design ship-mounted plant, partners with BGC in Australia

Engineering and project delivery firm DRA has signed a contract to carry out the detail design of a ship-mounted processing plant for Nautilus Minerals’ (TSX: NUS;  US-OTC: NUSMF) Solwara 1 seafloor copper-gold project, off the coast of Papua New Guinea.

Under the contract DRA will design a ship-mounted processing plant with a 400-tonne-per-hour capacity. The plant will include screening, dewatering (via centrifuges) and filter presses. The processed material will be temporarily stored in the ship’s hold, before it’s offloaded to bulk carriers.

DRA regional director Donald Holley said the firm is pleased to leverage its experience in designing ship-mounted process plants “gained from our offshore diamond recovery projects off the coast of southwest Africa.”

The detail design phase is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2015. The ship-mounted modules will be made in 2016, with production at Solwara 1 expected in 2018.

Meanwhile DRA’s Australian branch DRA Pacific has formed a joint venture with BGC Contracting to serve the Australian mining industry.

The new entity, called DRA BGC JV, will offer engineering, procurement, construction, operations and maintenance services to miners Down Under.

“The JV is pursuing a number of promising opportunities, which we hope to announce soon,” DRA Pacific CEO Clive Hart said.

“The collective scale, capacity and skills of the two groups would enable the JV to deliver an expanded range of services to a wider cross-section of industries,” BGC Contracting CEO Greg Heylen said.

Privately held BGC is a major contractor in the region, with experience in mining and civil construction projects. It specializes in load and haul, drill and blast, crushing and screening, bulk earthworks, concrete works and steelwork, plant construction and plant-maintenance services. The company has three offices in Australia, employs more than 3,000 staff and contractors, and makes over A$1 billion in revenue per year.

Also privately owned, DRA is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. The firm was founded in 1984 and has offices and operations in Africa, Australia, Canada, China, Europe, India, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the U.S.