Tag Archives: boreholes

Roy Hill contracts Pentium Hydro for more bores at iron ore mine site

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Pentium Hydro’s specialised drill rigs will extend their stay at Roy Hill’s iron ore mine in the Pilbara of Western Australia after the Vysarn Ltd subsidiary received a notice of contract award for hydrogeological drilling from the miner.

The new contract, which follows on from a general works contract Roy Hill and Pentium signed back in 2019, comes with an estimated revenue based on the initial scope of work of around A$12 million ($9 million).

It also stipulates for the issue of individual work requests for the supply of one or more drill rigs and comes with a three-year and five-month contract term starting from January 1, 2021, with a one-year extension option by Roy Hill.

The scope of work as defined under the contract is to provide the drilling and installation of production, injection and monitoring bores to support mining and exploration activities across Roy Hill mine site locations within the Pilbara, Pentium said, with revenue from these works based on a schedule of rates.

Pentium currently has one dual rotary drill rig and associated ancillary equipment on a Roy Hill mine site working under the terms of the previous contract announced on November 1, 2019. This drill rig and/or similar drill rigs in the Pentium fleet will start the execution of the scope of work defined within the new contract from January 1, 2021.

Epiroc starts work on ‘unique’ exploration drilling test centre

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Epiroc is about to start construction on a new Test Center in Örebro, Sweden, that, it says, will help perform different types of exploration drilling tests and data acquisition.

The centre is a close collaboration between industry, research institutes and academia, according to the company.

“With this Test Center, we can continue our way towards being the competence center within exploration drilling – and build networks within the industry,” Thomas Hallmén, General Manager Product Company Örebro, Epiroc Surface and Exploration Drilling division, said.

“It will create opportunities to cooperate with customers and universities as well as with researchers in order to improve our technologies and products for future requirements.”

The new Test Center, called Innovative Exploration Drilling and Data Acquisition Test Center (I-EDDA-TC), will provide a unique environment for the development of drilling, and related equipment and methods used for the exploration of mineral resources, such as borehole geophysics, according to Epiroc.

The goal for the future is to establish a leading centre that supports and creates innovation, Epiroc said, adding that it  features two boreholes each 1 km deep with fully characterised core samples.

Bjarne Almqvist, Project Leader for I-EDDA-TC and Researcher at the Department of Earth Sciences, Geophysics, at Uppsala University, said: “Effective exploration drilling for mineral resources is an area where industrial innovation plays an important role. Despite this need, there is a complete lack of test beds that allow industry to actively test novel drilling equipment.”

He added: “Our hope is that the Test Center becomes a focus for both small and large companies that work within exploration drilling and related technologies.”

The Test Center will be built next to the Epiroc Surface and Exploration Drilling division Production Center in Örebro.  It will be developed over three years and be available for customers from the beginning of 2022. The European Union has helped finance the project through the EIT Raw materials initiative.

The centre is a collaboration project between Uppsala University, Lund University, Luleå University of Technology, Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg, Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum , RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden) and Epiroc Surface and Exploration Drillling division.