Thiess–MACH Energy Mount Pleasant extension: design and planning notes for engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on International Mining – News
30 Second Briefing
Thiess has secured a six‑year contract extension with MACH Energy at the Mount Pleasant Operation in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, taking its engagement through to the end of 2031 with an expanded mining services scope. The deal locks in continuity of overburden removal and coal mining operations at this large truck‑shovel open‑cut site, where Thiess already provides drill and blast, load and haul, and mine planning. For geotechnical and operations teams, the longer horizon supports ongoing pit wall monitoring, slope design refinement and equipment fleet planning on a multi‑year basis.
Technical Brief
- Long-duration agreement supports progressive overburden stripping strategies and optimisation of strip ratios over time.
- Continuity of a single mining contractor simplifies calibration of blast designs to local rock mass conditions.
- Extended scope allows integrated mine planning, including haul road alignments and dump sequencing across multiple benches.
- Multi-year horizon facilitates phased fleet renewal decisions for large truck–shovel systems and ancillary support equipment.
- Slope design refinements can be scheduled with longer-term geotechnical monitoring, including radar and prism datasets.
- Contract stability improves justification for incremental automation, high-precision GPS and fleet management system upgrades.
Our Take
Thiess appears frequently in our mining-project coverage, with recent items including a $700 million alliance at the Eva copper project in Queensland, signalling that Mount Pleasant sits within a broader long-duration work pipeline for the contractor across Australia.
The Hunter Valley location of the Mount Pleasant Operation means Thiess is consolidating exposure to New South Wales coal while simultaneously building capability in other commodities such as copper and gold, as seen in its work with Harmony and at Norton Gold Fields in Western Australia.
With the Mount Pleasant contract now running to the end of 2031, operators and suppliers in the Hunter Valley can treat Thiess as a relatively stable anchor contractor, which typically supports longer-term planning for fleets, workforce and local service hubs in the region.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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