ASX-listed Develop Global is exiting an underground gold mine in Western Australia and heading to Australia’s Northern Territory to establish Core Lithium’s BP33 lithium mine under a new A$274 million, three-year contract.
Develop started Bellevue Gold’s namesake mine in WA but has lost out to Perenti unit Barminco in the latest contract bidding. Barminco won a circa-$850 million, four-year contract, starting in August this year, at Bellevue. That compares with the $400 million, four-year deal Develop got back in 2022 – the company’s maiden underground mining contract.
“This was a highly competitive process, as shown by the strength of the tenders and the final result,” Bellevue managing director Darren Stralow said.
“Barminco presented an extremely attractive proposal across safety, operational capability and technical expertise, positioning Bellevue strongly for the next phase of operational delivery and growth. Their depth of underground mining experience and global scale will further support Bellevue as the operation continues to mature and optimise.”
Core Lithium said its competitive process ended with Develop in front.
BP33 is about 5km from the company’s Finniss processing plant and is said to offer a 10-year satellite feed source. Core last month awarded a $50 million surface mining contract to NRW to extract the Grants lithium deposit.
Core suspended operations and development and halved its workforce in 2024 due to low lithium prices. It completed a $280 million refinancing earlier this year to reboot its Finniss growth plan.
“BP33 is expected to deliver the majority of ore feed over the first 10 years of operation and is a key driver of Finniss’ significantly improved cost profile and economics,” Core managing director Paul Brown said.
“We remain on schedule, with first spodumene concentrate targeted for the December quarter 2026, BP33 first ore expected in mid-2027 and ramp up to nameplate production by mid-2028.”
Develop managing director Bill Beament said work was also underway at OceanaGold’s Waihi North underground gold project in New Zealand as part of its recently awarded five-year contract.
“We are operating in a very favourable contracting market and therefore it is important that we strike the right balance between delivering value for our clients and returns for our shareholders,” Beament, former CEO of Australian gold major Northern Star Resources, said.
“We have built a world-class underground mining team and it is imperative that we protect margins, not only for our shareholders but also to ensure that we can continue to invest in the best people and the latest equipment for the benefit of our clients.
“This means being selective in the contracts we take on and the terms on which we deliver our services.
“Our new contract with Core Lithium is ideally suited to our key strengths and will see us relocate highly experienced people from our Bellevue site to the Finniss project.”
Develop’s share price is up about 35% year-to-date, capitalising the company at $2 billion.
Perenti, which has a similar market value, is down 22% so far in 2026.
