PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Project house Macmahon Holdings has terminated its contract at the Calabar operations, in Nigeria.
Macmahon told shareholders on Wednesday that operations at Calabar would cease on October 28, with demobilisation scheduled to start immediately after.
The contract was initially scheduled to conclude in 2018, but Macmahon said the operation had been underperforming owing to low mining volumes linked to the client's production plant and high rental maintenance costs.
Earlier this year, seven of Macmahon’s workers were kidnapped from the Calabar operation. The workers were eventually released, with five of the men injured, two of them seriously.
Meanwhile, Macmahon said that it remained in discussions with gold miner Newcrest Mining about its Telfer operations, in Western Australia, where the contractor had been incurring losses since February this year.
The company said the losses related to the larger-than-expected start-up costs, difficult operating conditions and additional maintenance rectification costs for client supplied equipment.
Macmahon and Newcrest remained in discussions regarding options to mitigate these issues, but the company has warned that the operational performance at Telfer will negatively impact its bottom line in the 2017 results.
Shares in Macmahon declined by 8.33% to close at A$0.11 apiece on Wednesday.