Boart Longyear partnership with CAT dealers and Canadian safety award

Boart Longyear has announced new partnerships for distribution in the United States with three major Caterpillar dealerships, namely Ziegler CAT with locations in Minnesota and Iowa, Nebraska Machinery (NMC CAT) – with locations in Nebraska and Iowa; and Prime Source Parts and Equipment, a subsidiary of Carolina CAT – located in North Carolina.

The statement said that these new distributor partnerships “provide drilling contractors and mine operations convenient access to high-quality Boart Longyear top hammer tooling and products for drill and blast applications.” Boart Longyear designs and manufactures a range of technologically advanced top hammer tooling for both surface and underground drilling and mining. “With a complete selection of shanks, rods, bits, couplings and adaptors, CAT customers can now purchase genuine Boart LongyearTM top hammer tooling through their already established, trusted relationship with their local CAT dealers.”

CAT’s network of locations in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and North Carolina provides local availability of Boart Longyear top hammer tooling for easier access when and where they need it. Chief Commercial Officer, Mark Irwin said, “Working with CAT dealers has allowed us to make our products more accessible with shorter delivery timeframes than ever before. With their established network and our high quality top hammer tooling products and support, we are able to provide hard rock and soft rock top hammer tooling solutions for the local mining markets.”

Elsewhere in North America, Boart Longyear was recently recognised by the Canadian Diamond Drill Association (CDDA) with year-end safety achievement awards for working more than 100,000 hours in 2016 with a best in class incident frequency rate. The awards, one for surface drilling and one for underground drilling sites, were presented at the 74th CDDA Annual General Meeting and Convention held May 14 to 16 in Ottawa, Ontario.

The CDDA selects just one recipient for each of the prestigious awards for the year based on the lowest nationwide injury rates for crews that have collectively worked more than 100,000 hours. The records, kept by the Workplace Safety Insurance Board, showed 21 companies reporting over 4,499,888 man-hours, with 53 medical aids and 9 lost time injuries. According to these records, nationwide and Boart Longyear results were as follows: Surface Drilling – Overall Incident Frequency 3.4%, Boart Longyear 0%. Underground Drilling – Overall Incident Frequency 1.8%, Boart Longyear 1.1%.

“This is a significant achievement in safety. Boart Longyear has demonstrated outstanding commitment and leadership in health and safety,” said CDDA President, Ryan Samis. “We are pleased to accept this award on behalf of every Boart Longyear Canadian driller who made this safety achievement possible,” said Brian Maeck, global environment, health and safety and training manager for Boart Longyear.