JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The share price of Master Drilling, which is described as the world’s largest raisedrilling company "by far”, rose 17% after the Fochville-headquartered company was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) on Thursday.

The share price increased from its opening level of R7.85 a share to R9.25 a share before midday.

Two institutional investors, Coronation and Investec, took up 76% of the shares offered in a private placement ahead of the listing, which is under the share code MDI.

The private placement of 56-million or 36% of the shares raised R439.6-million. Additional capital raising is unlikely before 2014.

At least double the size of its nearest competitor, the 26-year-old R1-billion-a-year 1 800-employee Master Drilling is currently setting new shaft-drilling benchmarks at a South African platinum project.

Raisedrilling is said to be faster and safer than conventional techniques.

Active in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe, Master Drilling is feeding into the mining industry’s current global drive towards greater mechanisation.

The company will be seizing on organic growth opportunities in Mexico and Peru and expanding geographically into Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mongolia, founder and MD Danie Pretorius said at the JSE listing function.

While the development and mining of gullies can take years, Master Drilling has developed a system to cut that time down to months, while simultaneously providing on-reef infrastructure.

The company is also expected to introduce purpose-built underground machines to address horizontal raiseboring opportunities innovatively.

“Instead of the jackhammer, drill and blast, we want to bore,” Pretorius tells Mining Weekly Online.

The absence of drilling and blasting reduces rock disturbance and adds to safety.

Master Drilling intends using these proceeds to fund the purchase of new drill rigs and associated equipment for expansion into new geographical markets.

The company has 154 drill rigs deployed across its international footprint, 84 of them raisedrilling machines.

Master Drilling has been growing at a compound rate of 20% a year and several gold and platinum clients have used the company’s services continuously for decades.

Former Lonmin Platinum MD Peter Ledger is the nonexecutive chairperson of the company and Andre van Deventer the financial director.

Master Drilling, founded in South Africa in 1986, provides drilling services to mining companies across a range of commodities and resources in Southern Africa.

It intends developing existing markets and creating new markets internationally through both organic and acquisitive growth.

Pretorius is bullish on the resources sector both domestically and abroad.

With almost 30% of the JSE’s market capitalisation having a mining orientation, JSE CEO Nicky Newton-King regards this mining services investment option as being highly appropriate.

“We appreciate that it chose South Africa as its primary listing destination,” Newton-King said in a media release.