Dear Shareholders

2012 was a year of promise and disappointment. While Boart Longyear made US$68 million (US$114 million on an adjusted basis*) net profit after tax, as compared to US$160 million in 2011, we did not end the year as strongly as we began. In light of the challenges facing us, we determined to make a change of our CEO in October and began a search for the successor. While our search progressed, our Chairman, Dave McLemore, stepped in and acted as interim CEO. We are grateful to Dave for his willingness to assume this role and for the decisive actions he took to address the change in customer demand our businesses experienced in the second half of 2012. We needed to respond with a sense of urgency to the reduction in business, and Dave has put us on a good footing to move forward in 2013.

After an extensive search for CEO candidates and interviewing a number of highly qualified internal and external candidates, the Board selected Richard O’Brien, the outgoing CEO of Newmont Mining, to be our next CEO. Richard brings a number of critical qualifications to the role. His knowledge of our industry, experience leading a major global mining company, financial background and creativity in delivering shareholder value, and ability to hit the ground running as a veteran public company CEO are attributes that make the Board confident Richard is attuned to the diverse constituents and values a good CEO weighs in each decision he or she makes.

We are optimistic that with Dave’s cost cutting actions and Richard’s views on how to grow our business from a customer’s perspective, we have created a platform for our growth to resume in 2013. Some things haven’t changed: our dedication to working safely in every place we do business, our market-leading technology and our enthusiasm for helping find solutions for the challenges our customers face.

I would like to thank my fellow Board members for their support, advice and guidance in the last year. In particular, with the entire Board joining me, I would like to thank Peter St George, who has decided to step down from his role as a non-executive director at the Annual General Meeting, for his years of service to the Company. Peter has been affiliated with Boart Longyear since before its initial public offering in 2007 and has provided critical financial and market expertise to the Board and the remuneration and audit committees throughout his tenure. The Board currently is conducting a search for a director with comparable skills to Peter’s and hopes to present his replacement to shareholders in the coming weeks. I also would like to thank our executive team for their leadership and dedication in a turbulent year. We look forward to introducing Richard to many of you at the Annual General Meeting in Melbourne.

*Adjusted EBITDA and NPAT are non-IFRS measures and are used internally by management to assess the performance of the business and have been derived from the Company’s audited financial statements. The adjusted measure excludes the impact of $68 Million ($46 Million net of tax) of restructuring and related impairment charges, of which $13 Million was paid in cash in 2012.