Argyle's early spoils to Roche

摘要

Downer EDI contract mining subsidiary Roche Mining has emerged as the first company from the service sector to benefit from Rio Tinto's decision to take Australia's largest diamond mine underground. Last month, shortly after Rio revealed it would proceed with the 760 million US dollars development of a block cave mining operation at Argyle in northern Western Australia, Roche announced ii had been engaged to provide ongoing services on the project. The contractor began its relationship with Argyle in mid-2003, and has since completed the construction of a 135m boxcut steel tunnel and a 2.5km exploratory decline, which has effectively enabled Rio to determine that the block cave option is economically viable.