Australian engineering firm Lycopodium continues to build a presence in North America, winning a A$93 million (US$65 million) engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) contract at Artemis Gold’s US$1.04 billion Blackwater expansion project in central British Columbia, Canada.
The Blackwater phase two (EP2) project announced late last year is expanding the gold-silver mine’s processing capacity from six million tonnes per annum to 21Mtpa to lift annual gold production above 500,000 ounces a year at the end of 2028, making it one of the three largest gold mines in Canada.
Lycopodium provided earlier EPCM services for Artemis and prepared the feasibility study and did front end engineering and design for the new plant.
The Australian Securities Exchange-listed company, which has a current market value of about A$750 million, derived 92% of its circa-$175 million revenues outside the Americas in the first half of fiscal 2026.
CEO Peter De Leo said in February this year Lycopodium was growing its workforce across operational hubs in Africa, Asia Pacific and the Americas and was pursuing “significant opportunities” in copper, silver and gold across Latin America after its February 2025 acquisition of control of Argentina’s SAXUM. It opened a new office in Vancouver last year.
“Blackwater is a world-class facility in a tier-one mining jurisdiction, and our involvement in the mine’s expansion is particularly meaningful, given it represents a material domestic project to be delivered by our Canadian-based business,” De Leo said.
