London-listed mining services company Capital has been awarded a further significant contract at Barrick Mining's majority-owned Reko Diq copper/gold project, in Pakistan, as well as exploration drilling contracts at three projects in Africa.

Capital has been awarded a three-year borehole drilling services contract at Reko Diq, where it is already implementing a previously awarded mining contract.

The latest contract award, which has a one-year extension option, covers the drilling, casing and development of production water holes essential for the Reko Diq project.

To fulfil this contract, Capital has bought a specialised water bore drilling rig manufactured by Italian rig manufacturer Fraste. The rig is now on site and undergoing commissioning while waiting on other critical components required to perform this multi-year contract.

Meanwhile, Capital says its mining contract at Reko Diq, which started in April, continues to ramp up, with mining equipment from Gabon having been deployed.

The first tranche of equipment being moved from the Sukari gold mine, in Egypt, has also arrived at the Pakistan project and will be commissioned over the next month.

A second tranche of equipment from Sukari is being prepared for export from Egypt.

"We are seeing strong momentum across the business, as we move through the second quarter, driven by both a successful initial ramp-up of our mining contract at Reko Diq and through the award of multiple new contracts. We are pleased to announce our new borehole drilling services contract at Reko Diq, which is a new revenue stream for the business and further underpins our strong operating relationship with Barrick.

"We have also been awarded a number of new exploration drilling contracts, as the exploration market improves from the sustained high gold prices.

"[Capital subsidiary] MSALABS, after a strong start to the year, continues its positive trajectory with the commissioning of the state-of-the-art commercial laboratory in Elko, Nevada, and new contract awards and extensions," Capital chairperson Jamie Boyton comments.

In addition to the new contract in Pakistan, Capital has been awarded exploration drilling contracts by Allied Gold, in Côte d'Ivoire; Toubani Resources, in Mali; and the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program, in Gabon.

These contracts will be carried out over the next six months.

Further, MSALABS, which provides geochemical laboratory services to the exploration and mining industries, has completed the installation and commissioning of the Nevada laboratory, which is equipped with MSALABS's third Chrysos PhotonAssay unit in the region. The processing of samples at the lab started this month.

MSALABS has also received a letter of award for the two-year extension of its on-site laboratory services contract with Kinross at the Tasiast gold mine, in Mauritania, where MSALABS has operated since 2019.

It has also been awarded a new three-year dedicated fire assay laboratory services contract for WIA Gold's Kokoseb gold project, in Namibia.

The PhotonAssay units provide X-ray assay technology that boasts more accurate analysis of gold, silver and copper in a shorter time frame than other technologies.