Western Australia’s mining sector continues to operate in a challenging delivery environment, shaped by contractor demand, market volatility, supply chain constraints and rising project costs.
In these conditions, procurement strategy and contract structure play a critical role in supporting successful project delivery — helping projects respond to market conditions, manage commercial risk and improve delivery confidence.
RP Infrastructure has supported mining and resources projects across WA for well over 20 years, working with clients across a range of commodities and project stages.
Our experience includes:
- Open pit mining
- Underground hard rock mining
- Mineral sands and rare earths projects
We work alongside clients to support procurement planning, tender management, commercial strategy and contract development — either as part of an integrated owner’s team or through targeted advisory support.
Having delivered more than 100 mining contracts across Western Australia, we understand the practical challenges facing projects in the current market, particularly around contractor engagement, pricing certainty and risk allocation.
Procurement and contracts in today’s WA market
As projects become more complex and market conditions remain tight, early procurement planning and commercially informed contract strategies are becoming increasingly important.
A structured approach can help projects:
- Improve engagement with the contractor market
- Better align commercial risk
- Support clearer procurement decisions
- Improve confidence during delivery
This is particularly relevant across regional and remote WA projects, where access, logistics and contractor availability continue to influence delivery outcomes.
Featured project | Dalgaranga Gold Project, WA
RP Infrastructure supported Spartan Resources with procurement strategy and tender management for underground development services at the Dalgaranga Gold Project in Western Australia.
The engagement included development of mining contract documentation, stakeholder workshops, procurement risk assessment, tender management and evaluation support to help achieve a commercially sound outcome aligned to project delivery requirements.
👉 Read the full Dalgaranga Gold Project case study here.
About the author
Paul Walpole is a senior mining consultant with over 30 years’ experience in both technical and commercial fields of the resources industry. He has a particular interest in the optimisation of contract mining models in the Western Australian hard rock mining space.