Public mining services benchmark: capex intensity vs. margin (Q2 2026).

01 The cohort and the headline numbers

The cohort comprises 14 publicly-traded mining services companies spanning North America, Latin America, Australia, and the UK. Revenues range from approximately $200M to $4B annually. The cohort is built to be analytically clean rather than market-cap-weighted; each company is one observation. The methodology references SEC EDGAR XBRL filings, ASX continuous disclosures, TSX MD&As, and LSE annual reports — on trailing-twelve-months basis to Q2 2026. The cohort spans pure drilling (Major Drilling, Foraco, Geodrill, Boart Longyear, Capital Limited), contract mining and integrated services (Perenti, Macmahon, NRW Holdings, Mineral Resources), heavy equipment rental (Emeco Holdings), and adjacent technical and engineering services (Imdex, GR Engineering, MLG Oz, Boom Logistics).

The two headline numbers worth committing to memory: cohort median capex intensity at 8.4% of revenue, down from 11.2% at the 2022 peak — a 280 basis-point compression. Cohort median EBITDA margin at 11.6% trailing-twelve, down from 14.4% at the 2022 peak — a 280 basis-point compression. The symmetry is the operating story. Disciplined capex has not yet produced the margin recovery the capex-discipline narrative implies, because day-rate compression has moved faster than the cost base could reshape and the cost reductions taken in the 2023-2024 down-cycle were not enough to absorb the rate environment of 2025-2026.

02 Capex intensity, by sub-cohort

The 8.4% cohort-wide capex intensity masks meaningful sub-sector variance that matters for benchmarking. The structural pattern is consistent with the commodity-capex cycle underneath: copper has held back through the price softness of 2022-2024 and only just started re-engaging with the 2025-2026 rebound; gold continues to invest aggressively against record producer margins; aggregates carries the highest structural capex intensity because environmental compliance and quarry capacity are sustaining capex categories that do not compress in a down-cycle.

Copper-exposed services — 7.8% median capex intensity

Copper-exposed contractors (Capital Limited, Perenti, sub-segments of Mineral Resources) run a 7.8% median capex intensity trailing-twelve, up from approximately 7-8% at the 2022 peak. The light uptick reflects fleet investments at Teck Highland Valley life-extension, Antofagasta's expansion capex, and BHP Spence/Escondida ore-handling upgrades that flow through to contractor demand. Wood Mackenzie's "End of capital discipline in mining" notes copper-specific capex among diversified majors up roughly 40% from 2019-2021 to 2022-2024 — but that miner-side capex has not yet translated to materially higher contractor capex intensity. The contractors are deferring growth fleet against discipline.

Gold-exposed services — 9.6% median capex intensity

Gold-exposed contractors (Major Drilling, Foraco, Geodrill, gold-exposed sub-segments of Perenti) run a 9.6% median capex intensity. The level reflects the structural reality that gold producers — sitting on PwC Mine 2025-reported 32% EBITDA margins through record gold prices — are continuing to invest in mine-life extensions and underground developments. Coeur Mining's 2025 results ($2.1B revenue, $1.0B adjusted EBITDA, 48% margin) and Aris Mining's 2025 results ($909M revenue, $464M EBITDA, 51% margin) frame the producer-side cash generation that funds gold-exposed services demand. Drilling-rig capex specifically (Major Drilling, Foraco, Geodrill) sits at the lower end of the band at 3-6% of revenue; underground contract mining sits at 9-12%.

Aggregates-exposed services — 10.2% median capex intensity

Aggregates-exposed contractors (Boom Logistics, MLG Oz, parts of Macmahon civil works) run the highest capex intensity at 10.2%, reflecting the sustaining-capex character of quarry capacity and environmental compliance. Capstone Partners' Rock Products & Aggregates update reports 2025 deal volume of 107 transactions, down 26.7% year-on-year, but average EV/EBITDA at 9.4x (versus 8.9x in 2022-2023) — investors valuing the durable cash-flow character of asset-rich aggregates services even when transaction volume softens.

03 Why margins lag the capex-discipline story

The cohort EBITDA margin compression to 11.6% trailing-twelve is the gap between the capex-discipline narrative and the operating reality. If capex discipline is real and the depreciation tail is shrinking with deferred growth investment, the textbook implies that operating margins should be recovering. They are not, for three reasons that are nameable and that we see directly in private-company engagements alongside the public-cohort numbers.

Day-rate compression has moved faster than the cost base

The 2023-2024 down-cycle saw contractors concede day-rate reductions to retain contract tenure with producers running their own cost-out programs. Those concessions are embedded in long-tenor contracts that typically reprice on 3-5 year renewal cycles. Even as 2025-2026 commodity prices recovered — copper at record levels, gold at record levels — the underlying day-rate book has not repriced. Cost-out programs taken in 2023-2024 hit fixed-cost categories first (regional offices, indirect headcount); variable cost (labour rates, fuel, explosives, consumables) reset higher in 2024 and stuck. The combination produces the margin lag.

Deferred fleet refresh is approaching the catch-up window

The capex compression from 11.2% (2022 peak) to 8.4% (Q2 2026) reflects deferred fleet refresh more than it reflects structural capex discipline. The reference benchmark for this pattern in adjacent services contractors is Oceaneering International (OII, the subsea services contractor), where SEC EDGAR filings show fiscal-2021 PP&E net of $591M compressing to $420M by fiscal-2024 — capex running below depreciation, fleet ageing — while operating margin recovered from 2.2% (FY21) to 11.5% (FY25). The mining-services cohort is mid-way through the same arc. Catch-up capex is 2026-2027 ahead, and when it lands it will compress free cash flow before margins fully recover.

The closure-liability conversation is reshaping the demand mix

Eight of the fourteen companies in the cohort have disclosed material changes to closure / decommissioning / asset-retirement provisions in the last six quarters. Mining services contractors do not carry mine-site closure on their own balance sheets — those obligations stay with mine owners — but they are on the demand-side beneficiaries of the structural closure-services market. Moody's 2024 reclamation-obligation report quantifies the trend: top-24 miners' reclamation obligations grew from $40bn (2013) to $72bn (2023), an 80% decade-long increase. Rio Tinto's 2023 AROs sat at approximately 32% of revenue; BHP and Vale at approximately 18% each. The disclosure pattern matches what we see in private-company QoE work — provisions being re-rated against current discount rates and updated cost studies. The public cohort is doing this discipline visibly; the private companies in the same sub-sectors should be ready for the same conversation when a process opens.

04 The commodity context that frames demand

No mining services cohort read is complete without naming the commodity backdrop. The copper price, per FRED series PCOPPUSDM monthly observations, has traced a clean cycle from a March 2022 peak ($10,231/MT) through a July 2022 trough ($7,545/MT, down 26% in four months) through 2023-2024 consolidation around $8,400-9,200/MT and into the late-2025 surge — October 2025 at $10,740/MT, December 2025 at $11,791/MT, and a January 2026 record of $12,987/MT. March 2026 settled back to $12,529/MT, still 22% above the 2022 peak and 66% above the mid-2022 trough.

Gold has run its own structural rally. PwC Mine 2025 reports top-40 gold-miner EBITDA margins at approximately 32% in 2024 (versus the sector-average 22% for ex-gold majors), driven by record gold prices supporting record producer revenues (+15% YoY for the gold-miner subset). S&P Global's Mine Cost Outlook 2026 forecasts global gold production +7% YoY in 2026 to 72.8 Moz before tapering through 2027. The producer-side margins are the structural funding source for mine-life-extension drilling and underground-development services that flow through to the gold-exposed contractor sub-cohort.

The contrast is what makes Q2 2026 a clean cohort moment. Producer-side commodity tailwinds are real and quantified. Mining services capex intensity has compressed regardless. Mining services EBITDA margins have not yet captured the rebound. The discipline-lag-margin-lag gap is the operating story, and it will close — but the closing mechanism is contract repricing on 3-5 year renewal cycles, not commodity-price catch-up. For sellers thinking about timing a process, that distinction matters; for buyers thinking about underwriting a target, that distinction matters more. Our companion Q2 2026 mining services M&A multiples post at /blog/mining-services-ma-multiples-q2-2026/ frames the transaction-level read against this cohort backdrop.

05 The public-private valuation gap

The cohort provides the multiple-and-margin reference point for private-company sell-side conversations in the sector. Private-company sellers should expect to be benchmarked against this cohort, with adjustments for size, scope, and capital structure. The headline math: public cohort median EV/EBITDA in Q2 2026 sits at 5.7-6.5x; private mining-services transactions in 2024-Q2 2026 have transacted in the 4.5-5.5x band, with our companion post showing 4.1x for copper-exposed private targets, 5.4x for gold-exposed, and 6.2x for aggregates-exposed. The gap is 1.5-2.0 turns of EV/EBITDA, roughly 20-30% on a percentage basis.

Decomposing the gap

The 20-30% discount decomposes into a size effect (~10-20% of the gap, roughly 1.0x of EV/EBITDA) and a liquidity-plus-listing-premium effect (~10-15% of the gap, roughly 0.5-1.0x of EV/EBITDA). The size effect dominates at the smaller end of the mid-market — BDO Australia's mining-services transaction table shows mid-market private deals (A$60M-A$100M EV) clustering at 3-5x EV/EBITDA against public comps at 6-7x, a 25-35% discount. The liquidity-plus-listing premium reflects the structural advantages of public capital — immediate liquidity, broader investor base (including ESG-screened capital), better financing access, more transparent governance. Private mining-services targets carry the inverse: concentrated counterparty risk, thinner information rights, less transparent contract books, less predictable refinancing pathways.

The hard-data anchor: BDO Australia transaction table

The cleanest hard-data anchor for private mining-services transaction multiples comes from BDO Australia's 2017-2021 named transaction table: Swick Mining Services to DDH1 at A$99M EV / 4.55x EV/EBITDA (Oct 2021); Valmec to Altrad Australia at A$62M / 3.10x (Jul 2021); Pit N Portal to Emeco at A$72M / 3.60x (Jan 2020); Force Equipment to Emeco at A$70M / 2.87x (Oct 2017). Mean of the named-transaction set is 5.04x, median 4.50x. These pre-2022 anchors hold structurally in the 2024-Q2 2026 cohort because the relative positioning of private to public has not shifted — the cycle has moved, but the gap has held at 1.5-2.0 turns.

Sub-segment dispersion within the private cohort matches the public cohort: drilling targets clear 3-5x EV/EBITDA private versus 5-7x public; contract mining clears 3-5x private versus 4-6x public; ore haul and mining logistics clear 3-5x private versus 4-6x public; technical and engineering services clear 5-8x private versus 7-11x public. Higher-margin, capex-light, IP-heavy services capture the highest multiples on both sides.

06 Operating implications for private-cohort preparation

For private mining services companies thinking about a sell-side process inside the next 18 months, the public-cohort benchmark generates four specific preparation priorities. Each is workable on a defined timeline and each addresses a question the buyer's diligence team will surface against the cohort backdrop above.

1. 01
   Build the capex-intensity bridge. Compute your trailing-twelve capex / revenue and compare to the 8.4% cohort median. If you are above the cohort, document the project-specific driver (fleet expansion against contract win, mandatory environmental investment) and the post-investment intensity glide path. If you are below the cohort, document the deferred-capex book and quantify the catch-up requirement. Buyers underwriting against the cohort will assume catch-up capex if you do not surface it; surfacing it on your own terms removes 0.5-1.0 turns of risk discount in the bid.
2. 02
   Frame the margin-recovery path. The 280bp gap between cohort EBITDA margin and 2022 peak is the buyer's frame for thinking about your normalised margin. Build a bridge from your trailing-twelve margin to the implied normalised level, with named contract-repricing milestones (which contracts reprice in 2026, 2027, 2028) and cost-base re-shaping levers (which fixed costs come out, which variable costs are addressable). The contract-repricing roadmap is the single most important QoE-readiness artefact in this cycle.
3. 03
   Get ahead of the closure-liability conversation. Whether you carry small make-good provisions or larger site-restoration obligations on infrastructure-style contracts, re-run the provision against current discount rates and current cost studies. The eight-of-fourteen disclosure pattern in the public cohort tells you what the buyer's diligence team expects to see. Documenting the conversation pre-process — not defending the legacy provision — is what holds the line on the closure-related risk discount.
4. 04
   Anchor the cohort comparison in your sell-side memorandum. Don't leave the cohort comparison to the buyer's analyst. Build the public-cohort table into the sell-side info memo with your trailing-twelve metrics adjacent. The size-discount and liquidity-premium conversation are easier to have when you have framed the starting point. Combined with our buy-side diligence work in capital-intensive sectors, this is the highest-ROI sell-side preparation activity for mid-market mining services targets in this cycle.

07 Three questions for the next board review

Whether you are running a private mining services business toward an exit, advising a sponsor underwriting a buy-side process, or sitting on the operating board of a portfolio target, the cohort numbers above generate three sharp questions that should be on every quarterly review agenda. We use these directly in our quarterly cadence with operating clients.

1. How does our capex intensity compare to the 8.4% public-cohort median, and what is driving the variance? If we are below the cohort, what is the catch-up profile and when does it land? If we are above the cohort, what is the post-investment glide path?
2. How does our trailing-twelve EBITDA margin sit against the cohort's 11.6% median, and what is the bridge to the normalised 14.4% historical level? Which contract renewals matter most? Which cost-base levers are still untapped?
3. Are we documenting the closure-liability conversation the way the public cohort is, or are we still defending the legacy provision? What does the current discount-rate environment imply for our provision book, and what is the implication for working capital and EBITDA?

08 What we are watching into Q3 2026

Three signals matter into Q3 2026. First, whether contract repricing in the gold-exposed services sub-cohort produces visible margin recovery — gold producer margins at 32% should support contractor repricing on calendar 2027 renewals, and the cohort half-year results in August will be the first read on whether that is converting. Second, whether the capex catch-up window opens in 2026 H2 — the Oceaneering pattern (PP&E shrink running below depreciation) is mid-cycle in the mining services cohort, and any visible re-acceleration in fleet capex will compress free cash flow before margins fully recover. Third, whether the public-private gap holds at 1.5-2.0 turns or whether sponsor competition for the private cohort compresses the spread. Our quarterly cohort note tracks each of the three; the Q3 2026 update is scheduled for August 2026, and our companion read on capital-intensive M&A diligence sits at /blog/mining-services-ma-multiples-q2-2026/ for the transaction-level context.