Mining project specialist Bateman Engineering has doubled interim pre-tax profits to £3.9 million and is lining up acquisitions.

Dutch-registered Bateman, which came to AIM last autumn, increased turnover 46 per cent to £91 million in the six months to December. With a current order book standing at nearly £150 million, chief executive officer Dr Sivi Gounden declares 'conditions in the mining industry generally remain very positive and I am confident of a strong full year performance'.

Chief financial officer Jonathan Ben-Cnaan says strong metal prices, which have boosted projects and caused equipment shortages and price rises, contributed to the company's growth. But, with sub-contractors' prices and wage rates also rising, he argues Bateman's own technical skill, efficiency measures and economies of scale are what enabled the company to improve its margins.

'We can now run a company much bigger than we are today,' claims Cnaan. Bateman, which is sometimes up against giant competitors such as Fluor and Bechtel, has been winning some useful new business since December. A month ago, the company clinched a £10 million contract to upgrade the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance's processing plant at the Gregory Crinum coal mine in Queensland.

In partnership with Australian engineering group Ausenco, Bateman has also been awarded a £117 million 16-month contract to implement a copper mining project at Lumwana in Zambia for Aussie mining group Equinox Minerals. Cnaan says the company often carries out lump-sum 'turnkey' projects, such as processing plants for mines.

Bateman, which also works on power plants in southern Africa and elsewhere, is looking at several potential acquisitions, informs Cnaan, following its latest £2.2 million cash purchase of South African metal processor Atoll, with a £25 million order book. The new deals would either extend the company's technical range or take it into new areas, such as the former Soviet Union or South America.

Cnaan says he expects the strong mining market to last another three to five years. He suggests the time lag involved in big mining company decision-making and then the completion time for projects should insulate a company such as Bateman from an eventual market downturn.

Bateman shares have risen 65 per cent to 347.5p since October and now value the company at £124 million. They should have further to go.

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