Earthmoving equipment rental business Emeco plans to acquire hard-rock focused Pit N Portal for $72 million.

Emeco has entered a binding agreement to acquire the underground mining equipment and services business.

“Pit N Portal allows Emeco to leverage its current core capabilities and expand into a new market.” Emeco managing director and chief executive officer Ian Testrow said.

“The underground mining sector is undoubtedly growing, and this represents an attractive adjacency for Emeco, providing Emeco with a solid platform for growth.

“Pit N Portal also provides us with significant commodity diversification by immediately more than doubling our gold exposure with strong opportunities for further growth in hard-rock projects.”

Pit N Portal’s projects include development of the Lynne decline at the Pajingo gold mine in North Queensland.

Emeco describes Pit N Portal as operating the largest underground equipment rental fleet in Australia, with more than 100 pieces of specialised underground mining equipment and more than 500 pieces of infrastructure equipment.

Emeco said the acquisition would be largely funded through a share issue to raise about $65 million.

The Pit N Portal deal will consist of a $62 million cash payment and $10 million in Emeco shares to the vendors.