Prospectors regional manager for Orange Chris Lemmon said the purchase would strengthen its focus on servicing drillers and miners from Cobar through to the Hunter Valley.

Eagle Mining’s Alan Hyde will remain on the road for Prospectors.

“Alan Hyde has a great reputation among drillers, and we look forward to bringing his passion and expertise into the Prospectors family,” Lemmon said.

Prospectors also plans to open a new branch office in Singleton in the next few weeks to better target the Hunter Valley market.

The company already supplies exploration consumables to major mining companies such as Xstrata, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.

Core trays and calico bags are some of its biggest selling products to coal companies, drillers and explorers.

Prospectors commercial manager John Cunniffe told ILN the private company started supplying drilling muds from Australian Mud Company in the last 4-6 weeks.

Last week, Prospectors stitched up a deal to supply down-the-hole survey instruments from Reflex Instruments.

DTH survey instruments help cut costs by providing geologists more information on core orientation in the hole and thus reduce guesswork.