Already the group has noted a $A30 million jump in revenue from its underground diamond drilling division in the March quarter, while unaudited revenue for the period came in at $31.3 million.
Its full year revenue guidance remains unchanged at up to $135 million with earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortisation of up to $28 million.
Closer to home, it had a record Australian underground diamond drill rig utilisation rate of 48 rigs out of its fleet of 50, contracted out to the end of June.
“We have seen a number of significant contract awards in the third quarter, particularly in the underground diamond drilling division,” Swick managing director Kent Swick said in a statement.
“We are currently in the process of delivering a total of nine rigs to the St Ives gold mine [Gold Fields] and the Argyle diamond mine [Rio Tinto] in Western Australia over the next six weeks.
“With the recent awards, utilisation in the Australian underground diamond drilling division is expected to reach 96 per cent by June.”
He said the group also expected reverse circulation drilling rig utilisation rates to improve towards the end of the current financial year.
“Whilst overall fleet utilisation in the latest quarter has been dampened slightly by lower than expected rigs in work in North America and the seasonality of the RC division, this has been offset by strong demand within the Asia Pacific region for our underground diamond drilling services,” he said.
“North American utilisation is expected to rebound in 2012-13 with a number of opportunities currently being assessed and with the scheduled return to some of the suspended projects.”
Shares in Swick were down 3.12% or 1c in afternoon trade to 31c.
This article first appeared in ILN's sister publication MiningNews.net.
