Boart Longyear Drilling Services recently completed a 90-day drilling program in Canada for Canadian Natural Resources Ltd – Albian Sands (CNRL) at the Jackpine and Muskeg River mines. The Boart Longyear crews drilled a total of 218 holes averaging depths of 80 m per hole with a total metre count of ~18,000 m. This was done in 60 days with one LS™250 Minisonic™, three core rigs and one abandonment rig working 21 days on and seven days off without hurting anyone.

The contract required a minimum of 90% core recovery and the Boart Longyear Drilling Services crews managed to average 98.39% core recovery with zero re-drills which resulted in huge cost savings for Boart Longyear and Canadian Natural Resources. This was the first year the project was completed without any re-drills.

The company says: “Our high-quality workers and our experience with drilling at that mine since 2002 were key factors in our ability to accomplish the project with zero injuries and zero re-drills.”