Boart Longyear, the world’s leading integrated exploration drilling services, equipment and performance tooling provider, has received the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia (AME BC) David Barr Award for its proactive commitment to health and safety. The David Barr Award is given annually by the AME BC Health and Safety Committee for excellence in leadership and innovation in mineral exploration health and safety. Boart Longyear will be presented the award during the AME BC Mineral Exploration Roundup in January 2014.

“We are a safety-first culture; nothing is more important to us, as a company, than to send our drillers home safely,” said Alan Sides, Senior Vice President of global drilling services for Boart Longyear. “Boart Longyear is constantly looking for ways to improve safety, whether it is through new technologies or innovative training. It is an honour for our entire team to be recognised for our efforts.”

To be nominated for the David Barr Award a company or individual needs to demonstrate one or more of the following:

• Leadership and innovation excellence in exploration safety
• Improvement in safety records from year to year
• Demonstrate efficient and compassionate behaviour handling an unfortunate accident.

In the last five years, Boart Longyear has engineered several devices to improve the safety of diamond drilling. These improvements include a new safety bypass valve, an all-encompassing guarding system with interlock, a spilt tube loader and rod lifter.

Boart Longyear has also developed safety programs to properly train and report EHS issues. By issuing all employees stop-work authority, Boart Longyear has developed a self-empowered workforce that provides transparent accident and incident reporting. With two permanent training facilities — one for underground coring and one for surface coring — drillers are properly trained and prepared for the field.