Ausdrill via AUMS had an ongoing contract to mine the gold. These can often get thrown out the door when the economics of the mine get too expensive and taken in house.
NWH on the other hand is doing project work for Roy Hill. Assuming Gina still wants to produce IO from Roy Hill then they need someone to complete the rail contract. Don't see why they would take it away from NWH now - it is either complete or almost complete by now (was supposed to be finished in January). Same with the concrete package - should be close to done.
If there is any relevance to NWH it is to their Middlemount Coal contract which is by far their largest MS contract and where they have a chunk of PPE tied up on a dry hire and maintenance agreement (goes through to 2017 from memory). The Roy Hill work is part of their Civil business - its not a MS contract.
As a side note, Ausdrill losing that contract isn't necessarily a bad thing. Even after the impairments, Ausdrill will be trading at a fraction of its NTA. A standard clause when these contracts get terminated (in most international cases anyway) is the miner has to buy out the PPE and inventory at book value from the contractor. If Ausdrill could turn all its PPE and inventory into cash this would be a massive positive. Of course getting the miner to actually pay the contractor the agreed terms is another matter...
CBA Price at posting:
$90.00 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
NWH Price at posting:
28.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
A personalised tool to help users track selected stocks. Delivering real-time notifications on price updates, announcements, and performance stats on each to help make informed investment decisions.
(20min delay)