Swick Mining Services General Manager Nick Rossides sat down with Global Business Reports ahead of its Australia Mining 2026 edition, sharing how Swick built its reputation through equipment innovation, operational discipline, and a people-first culture that has driven the company from a WA-focused driller to a global underground drilling contractor.
The rig that changed an industry
Swick was the first company to engineer a mobile underground drill rig, mechanising a skid-mounted unit and mounting it on a rubber-wheeled carrier capable of tramming independently between drill sites. The impact was immediate. Where traditional skid rigs could take up to 24 hours to relocate, Swick’s mobile rig reduced that to a matter of hours. Client feedback at the time was unequivocal: this would change the industry.
Demand quickly outpaced supply. Swick responded by building the systems, safety frameworks, and workforce capability needed to support Tier 1 mining clients at scale. Now operating its third generation of mobile rigs, the company has grown from its Western Australian roots across gold, nickel, and copper to become a multinational drilling contractor with operations across Australia, Europe, and North America.
Pushing deeper with DeepEX
As client demands evolved, so did the technical challenge. When standard rigs could reach 1,000 metres, Swick developed DeepEX, a specialised rig built specifically for deep-target drilling. The results speak for themselves: in one benchmark case, drilling time for a 1,500-metre hole dropped from approximately 138 shifts to 74 with the same crew. The deepest hole Swick has drilled to date sits at just under 2,500 metres.
For clients, this is more than a technical achievement. DeepEX allows them to bypass the upper sections of a deposit entirely, reducing cost and time-to-resource while accelerating access to deeper ore bodies that would otherwise require lengthy and expensive conventional drilling campaigns.
Growth built on relationships, not just geography
Swick’s international expansion has been deliberately client-led rather than market-driven. The company has typically entered new regions at the invitation of clients it already works with in Australia, a model that has taken it into Portugal, Spain, Bosnia, and Bulgaria across Europe, and from Canada into the United States in North America.
The North American market presents both opportunity and challenge. Mobile rig adoption remains lower there than in Australia. The focus is on building long-term relationships with major operators, replicating the operational standards and culture developed over decades in Australia, and ensuring that international teams are built locally rather than simply transplanted from home.
People as a competitive advantage
Running through the interview is a consistent theme. Swick’s people are not a resource to be managed, they are the business. Many employees have built entire careers here, progressing from entry-level positions into senior roles through a clear pathway that the company has consciously structured.
As Nick puts it: “Training, experience, and retained knowledge drive both productivity and safety outcomes.”
That philosophy, combined with Swick’s position within Perenti’s group of drilling services companies and access to a fleet of over 300 rigs, gives the business purchasing power and cost efficiencies that ultimately benefit clients through lower cost per metre.
Read the full interview
Nick’s interview is published in the Global Business Reports Australia Mining 2026 Pre-Release Edition. Read it in full at https://www.gbreports.com/contents/nick-rossides/