RGK Resources (RGK) was acquired by MEnD, a subsidiary of Duratec, in March 2026. The advanced Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) inspection company, based in Port Kenedy, WA, is headed by former Managing Director now General Manager NDT – MEnD, Aaron Kaeding.
Since its inception in 2019, RGK has grown to become a leading essential services provider to tier one clients in the mining and energy sectors. Thanks to its sustained growth, especially in people, talent and expertise, RGK has achieved DNV accreditation for NDT compliance, positioning the company, and the wider Duratec business, in a highly sought after and limited vendor pool.
We spoke to Aaron about his personal career development, the motivation behind and formation of RGK, and his reasoning behind the Duratec acquisition and where the future may lead.
Learning the ropes
When you ask Aaron Kaeding to reflect on RGK Resources, the story doesn’t begin with a business plan, it begins offshore, driven by opportunity, curiosity and a willingness to learn, grow, and dangle from a rope over the Indian Ocean.
Like many young Australians, Aaron entered the FIFO workforce straight out of school, initially motivated by financial security – earning enough to buy a house and start a family.
“My sister worked in payroll and said, ‘you should get into FIFO… you should see what they earn!’” Aaron recalls. “Going down that path was a no-brainer for me at that point in my life.”
What started as a practical decision quickly evolved into a long-term career in Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) inspection, working across offshore oil & gas assets at a time when the sector was rapidly expanding.
“I guess at the time, everything was happening up north and offshore,” Aaron explains. “That’s where the opportunities were, and that’s where you learnt the most. Rope access inspection was prominent in the UK energy sector, specifically the North Sea, but it was fairly new to Australia at the time.”
A significant portion of that experience was spent working across Woodside’s Northwest shelf assets, in an environment that ended up shaping his approach to quality and execution.
It was also a period of innovation, as new techniques emerged to meet the challenges of offshore inspection. Aaron was part of teams integrating rope access with inspection methods such as digital radiography and was pushing what was possible in difficult environments.
“We started carrying out radiography while on the ropes… our team was the first to do it in Australia,” he says, “It was challenging to begin with, especially with resistance due to the added risks associated with performing radiography at height, but it opened up a lot of opportunity.”
Identifying an opportunity
After years working across both energy and mining sectors, Aaron developed a strong understanding of where the gaps in the market existed, particularly in advanced, specialised NDT services.
Rather than competing in more traditional inspection scopes, he saw an opportunity to focus on niche capability.
“We identified gaps in NDT services provided by other companies,” he explains. “In particular, long-range Ultrasonic Testing (UT) which has been a massive growth area for us; it wasn’t something that was readily available.”
That thinking led to one of the early strategic focuses when RGK Resources was established in 2019.
Like most start-ups, the early years came with their share of challenges, particularly around cash flow, building a client base and sustaining growth.
“Not drawing a wage, managing cash flow and building a consistent pool of clients… it was difficult at first,” Aaron admits.
Progress, however, came through small but meaningful milestones, “I remember getting a PO from my initial employer, when I started in the industry in a subcontracting role, and it was a reflection point to see how far RGK had come,” Aaron remembers.
A solutions-driven approach
From the outset, RGK positioned itself differently, not just as a service provider, but as a partner focused on solving client problems.
“Clients will often tell you what their problems are and it’s our job to solve them,” Aaron says.
This approach naturally led the business towards in-service assets, where inspection, maintenance and ongoing support are closely linked.
“By focusing on in-service assets, we were able to secure longer running projects,” he explains. “Those scopes tend to grow and enable us to better develop client relationships.”
Quality as a differentiator
Operating in highly regulated environments, RGK placed a strong emphasis on accreditation and formal quality systems.
This focus was reinforced through the recent achievement of DNV accreditation for NDT Class compliance in May 2026, positioning the business within a limited global vendor pool for offshore inspection services.
“Only a handful of inspection companies in Australia have achieved this level… it places us amongst a limited vendor list and provides growth opportunities outside of our traditional targeted sectors,” Aaron says.
For Aaron, accreditation is a critical part of demonstrating capability, “Being accredited means you have demonstrated industry or international standard compliance, and this separates you from competing companies who haven’t demonstrated this.”
The Duratec acquisition
As RGK continued to grow, the business reached a point where further expansion required greater scale and capability.
The acquisition by Duratec and MEnD presented an opportunity to take that next step, “We hadn’t previously worked with Duratec or MEnD, however after initial meetings with some of the team, including Liam Holloway, Nigel Kroonstuiver, Chris Oates and Greg Oates, it was clear that the Duratec Group was the right fit.”
The decision ultimately came down to alignment, both in values and in long-term opportunity.
“It just felt right,” he explains. “I saw a future for the team and a future for myself.”
The integration provided RGK with the ability to expand beyond its original footprint, leveraging Duratec’s broader platform, capability and national reach.
“It gives us the opportunity to work at a national level and leverage Duratec’s reach, supply chain and expertise,” Aaron says, “and it fills that advanced NDT service gap in Duratec’s full-asset-life-cycle solution and self-performance model.”
Looking ahead
RGK is now focused on growth by expanding into new sectors as well as geographical regions. Aaron and his team will continue to build capability in advanced NDT and inspection, complimenting MEnD’s materials and durability engineering reporting and enabling Duratec to self-perform its structural integrity maintenance and remediation services.
For Aaron, the ambition is clear.
“As part of MEnD, and Duratec, we want to be the number one supplier… a dominant quality focused player in the asset integrity space,” he says.
As RGK looks to the future, the foundations that shaped its growth: quality, innovation and a solutions-driven mindset, remain firmly in place, now supported by the scale and reach of the broader Duratec Group.
