Over the six months to 31 January 2007, Boart Longyear made six strategic acquisitions. Four of the businesses acquired are based in Western Australia (North West Drilling, DrillCorp, Grimwood Davies and KWL) and two in the Americas (Prosonic and Connors).
The acquisitions of North West Drilling, DrillCorp and Grimwood Davies significantly expanded Boart Longyear’s presence in the important Western Australian mining industry, providing the Company with an increased presence in surface drilling, particularly iron ore drilling, and further exposure to Majors such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.
KWL designs and manufactures a range of multipurpose and dual tube reverse circulation rigs which complement Boart Longyear’s strong offering of surface and underground coring drilling rigs.
The acquisition of Prosonic provides the Company with a base for international expansion of its sonic drilling capabilities and the acquisition of Connors provides increased exposure to the leading Latin American mining houses. There is potential for further operational efficiencies to be realised in FY2008 from these acquisitions, following their integration into the Group. For all the drilling services companies recently acquired by Boart Longyear, new rigs are planned to be deployed to the businesses during FY2007.
