Tag Archives: RC drilling

Wallis Drilling wins three-year contract extension at Glencore’s Murrin Murrin op

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Glencore has signed a three-year contract extension with Wallis Drilling to retain the drilling company’s services at Murrin Murrin in Western Australia’s Goldfields region, which will extend Wallis’ long-standing relationship at the Glencore-owned operation to over a quarter of a century, the service provider says.

Wallis Drilling is a local Western Australian business, founded in 1965 by Marty and Jamie Wallis, which has grown to over 300 employees, but remains a family run business today.

Wallis has provided services to Glencore’s Murrin Murrin operation for 24 years and the contract extension, running through to September 2025, will see Wallis Drilling continue to provide RC grade control and blasthole drilling at Murrin Murrin.

Murrin Murrin is a nickel-cobalt mining and processing operation between Leonora and Laverton in the north-eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia and currently provides work for over 1,000 employees and contractors.

Wallis Drilling Manager, Wayne Waters, oversees the Murrin Murrin contract, with his role previously being occupied by Grant Wallis who is now the Chief Operating Officer of the business.

Waters said: “Murrin Murrin, like Wallis, understands the importance of establishing and nurturing long-term relationships to create stability, which has been exemplified by the latest contract extension.

“This business certainty is beneficial to Wallis, but it also gives us the capacity to plan for the long-term on site at Murrin Murrin and deliver the best operational outcomes.”

Grant Wallis said: “Our work at Murrin Murrin has helped us grow from a small family business to one of Australia’s largest privately-owned minerals drilling companies, while still remaining true to our local WA roots.”

Nic Fenner, Head of Mining Technical Services at Murrin Murrin, said: “We are very proud to help grow local Western Australia businesses, like Wallis Drilling, and help be a part in their success stories.

“The strong relationship between Murrin Murrin Operations and Wallis has been underpinned by our shared values and culture. Murrin Murrin and Wallis both have many long serving employees with some even being the second generation in their family to work at Murrin Murrin.”

Geomagnetic Design looks to revolutionise RC and diamond drilling with GM1 rig

Mineral exploration, Mining equipment, Mining services, Sustainable mining, , , , , , ,

Emerging drill rig manufacturer, Geomagnetic Design has announced results from field trials on its specialty, patented RC and diamond GM1 drill rig.

Now in advanced stages of research and development (R&D), field testing in Western Australia’s Pilbara Region has confirmed the drill rig’s ability to halve the carbon footprint of traditional exploration drilling programs, with exceptional operational and environmental outcomes, according to the company.

Of note, the GM1’s performance across exploration drilling programs at six separate sites across the state showed a significant reduction in fuel consumption of up to 400 litres per 11-hour shift at RC configurations, and 60 litres per 11-hour shift at diamond configurations, as well as reducing ambient noise emissions.

The GM1 can also commence drilling in RC mode, and change to diamond coring within three hours, a significant reduction compared with current market changeover configurations, which typically take between 1-3 days, Geomagnetic Design says.

Commenting on the driving factors for innovation, Geomagnetic Design Founder and General Manager, Darren Papst, said: “Drillers are facing growing scrutiny and pressure from governments, investors and communities to exceed environmental considerations in their program design. We made it our business to address a multitude of performance factors that have never been achieved in one drill rig.

“Once our R&D is complete later this year, our solution will be the first of its kind, an ‘all-in-one’ RC and diamond rig that delivers reduced fuel consumption, carbon output and noise emissions all while covering more ground, with less holes and less metres.”

Designed and manufactured at the company’s headquarters in Perth, the patented blueprint for the GM1 uses a hydraulic system, enabling the rig to operate with a drastically reduced carbon output (from 59 kg/h down to 29 kg/h) while still retaining the same operational capacity as competitor rigs, the company says.

As well as halving carbon emissions, the physical machine footprint is substantially less than other drill rigs – measuring just 2.5 m x 3 m. The GM1 rig requires support from only one air truck, where competitor rigs are normally accompanied by two to three large trucks, it says.

Unique to the GM1 drill rig is its ability to conduct shallow angle RC drilling on 2 axes. This capability has been addressed during R&D and, if successful in future trials, will provide a cheaper form of drilling that allows clients to cover more ground with less holes and less metres, the company said.

The concept of a magnetically-driven drill rig has been a long-time plan of Papst’s.

“I began ideating the GM1 drill rig years ago when I noticed a gap in the market between having a superior-functioning rig versus having a sustainable, environmentally-designed rig.

“This current drill rig that we aim to go to market with has phenomenal fuel efficiencies, but we don’t plan on stopping there. Phase two of our engineering process will involve removing the need for diesel altogether with the use of a magnetic drive in its place.”

If the project continues to move at the expected timeline, Geomagnetic Design’s GM1 rig could be commercially available as soon as December 2022, the company says.

Exploration drill rig use on the up, IMDEX says

Mineral exploration, Mining equipment, , ,

New mineral exploration rig use figures released today by IMDEX show continued strong activity in most major mining regions internationally.

The combined Australia/New Zealand region continued to be a standout, with rig use at 82% of capacity despite the number of rigs available increasing by 13% over the past year.

Reflecting that growth, IMDEX says March-quarter revenue for its Asia Pacific region including Australia is up 28% on the same time last year.

The rig use snapshot, contained in an IMDEX presentation to the Macquarie Australia Conference on May 4, examines the state of rig use in April this year and updates a similar assessment conducted by IMDEX at the same time last year.

IMDEX used the Macquarie presentation to reveal an overall March-quarter revenue increase of 29% compared with the same time last year.

A further regional breakdown showed revenue in the Americas was up 35%, and Africa and Europe was up 20%.

The rig count figures, of surface and underground coring and RC rigs, showed that rig use was at 62% of capacity in Canada, up from 46% at the same time last year, South America was at 50% (39%), Africa 73% (54%), Europe and the Middle East 48% (39%), and Asia 46% (37%).

Rig use was down in the US at 57%, compared with 72% last year, and Mexico and Central America 42% (44%).

Globally, the rig use figure stood at 56%, up from 46%.

IMDEX Chief Executive Officer, Paul House, said the size of the global rig fleet had decreased from April 2021, as older rigs were retired and new, safer rigs were being commissioned, but resource companies had committed to more exploration and higher standards of HSE, and drillers had committed to buying more rigs.

He said a skilled labour shortage, the replacement trend, rig transfers and a lag between purchase and delivery were responsible for a decrease in the overall size of the global fleet, but these were short-term constraints.

Drillers were buying more rigs as the industry continued to grow, he added.

“The pleasing aspect of our business activity to date is that even in this period of transition of the rig fleet, IMDEX has recorded a 29 per cent increase in third quarter revenue — a result which has outperformed the market,” House said.

The fundamentals driving the sector remain unchanged, he said.

Strong commodity prices were being driven by increasing demand and decreasing reserves, there was an increasing demand for battery metals, strong capital raising across all commodities, and an increasing demand for secure, real-time rock knowledge data and solutions to support remote and automated operations.

“The commitment to growth in exploration by all participants in the resource sector is high and reflects both the positive underlying fundamentals and the sense of urgency required,” House said.

“Execution, however, is likely to take place over a longer period of time than planned, leading to a longer growth cycle.”

Master Drilling makes ‘horizontal integration’ move with Geoserve buy

Mineral exploration, Mining mergers and acquisitions, Mining services, , , , , ,

Master Drilling has announced that it has fulfilled all the necessary conditions to acquire Geoserve Exploration Drilling, increasing the South Africa-based company’s ability to offer exploration drilling, reverse circulation drilling, geotechnical investigations and grade control drilling services.

In its 2019 financial year results, released today, it said the relevant competition commission had approved the transaction and Geoserve, a private company specialising in exploration and drilling services, would now be embedded into the company’s African segment as a wholly-owned subsidiary.

Danie Pretorius, CEO of Master Drilling, said: “The transaction will augment our expertise and global reach, as well as provide a platform for horizontal integration in the mining industry, which has been under pressure in the past few years, necessitating consolidation.”

Master Drilling paid MOGS Mining Services ZAR100 ($5.7) for the company, as well as assumed the bank overdraft facility and certain liabilities tied to Geoserve, it said. The company said a detailed purchase price allocation will be performed during 2020 and disclosed in its 2020 financial statements.

Master Drilling added: “Geoserve has a well-established footprint and pipeline that will reinforce Master Drilling’s capacity and income profile through increased exploration drilling, reverse circulation drilling, geotechnical investigations and grade control drilling services, which are all key to the broader mining sector.”

Perenti’s surface division awarded with A$155.5 million of new contracts

Mineral project development, Mining equipment, Mining services, , , , , , ,

Perenti reports its Surface Mining Industry Sector Group (ISG) has been awarded A$155.5 million ($103 million) in new and extended contracts.

The new work, extensions, and expansion of scope is across 10 projects, with highlights including:

  • A three-year contract (with options to extend) for production drilling services with Boggabri Coal Operations (a part of Idemitsu Australia Resources Group) at its Boggabri coal mine in New South Wales, Australia;
  • A three-year contract extension with a major iron ore producer for reverse circulation (RC) and grade control drilling at its Western Australian operations;
  • A 12-month contract extension with Consolidated Minerals to support current mining operations and regional expansion projects (which has mining operations in Australia and Ghana);
  • Expansion of services for a major mining contractor in Queensland, which will double the contract value across the current three-year contract duration;
  • A 12-month extension to existing works at Gold Fields’ St Ives and Granny Smith gold projects, in Western Australia, which involves land and lake rigs for air core, RC and diamond drilling; and
  • An equipment hire agreement with E&P at Gold Fields’ Damang gold mine in Ghana.

Perenti Group Managing Director, Mark Norwell, said: “We have been targeting a strong pipeline of surface and underground work and I am pleased we continue to convert these opportunities into secured contracts across a range of different projects in both Australia and Africa.

“These latest awards add to $165 million in surface work we announced in December 2019 and the A$200 million contract we recently announced for our Underground ISG.”

DDH1 after WA iron ore contract growth with Ranger Drilling acquisition

Mining equipment, Mining mergers and acquisitions, Mining services, Steel and iron ore, , , , , , , , , , ,

DDH1 Holdings says it has acquired Ranger Drilling as it looks to grow the Australia iron ore RC drilling specialist’s business.

DDH1 Holdings now consists of three drilling businesses, namely DDH1 Drilling, Strike Drilling and Ranger Drilling.

Ranger was established in 2005 by Matt and Julie Izett and specialises in providing reverse Circulation (RC) drilling services to customers operating in the Western Australian iron ore market.

DDH1 Chief Executive Officer, Sy van Dyk, said: “Ranger will continue operating as a separate company, under the same management from the same premises. DDH1’s intention is to continue to grow the Ranger brand, while preserving their culture of leadership, productivity, innovation and safety. These are the qualities that attracted our investment in Ranger and we want to ensure it is protected and fostered going forward.”

Ranger’s Managing Director, Matt Izett, said: “DDH1 is a natural partner for Ranger to further our growth ambitions by providing additional capital to the business in a cost-effective and disciplined manner. I look forward to continue leading and growing the business Julie and I founded in 2005 and to deliver superior drilling solutions to our loyal customer base, whilst contributing at a senior level to the wider group’s operations”.

DDH1 Drilling, Strike Drilling and Ranger’s capabilities are highly complementary, DDH1 said, and the combination of the businesses provides the opportunity to offer clients the full suite of drilling services required across the resource life cycle, from discovering new deposits to extending existing mine lives. “The group’s drill rig fleet is modern, standardised and highly productive,” the company said.

DDH1 Managing Director, Murray Pollock, said: “DDH1 and Ranger have worked together on a shared contract basis, during which time we have observed Ranger’s premium customer service offering, the productivity gains delivered by their modern fleet and quality management team led by Matt Izett. Together, we are committed to being the drilling contractor and employer of choice in the Australian drilling industry.

“The group now has 84 Tier One drill rigs and employs over 700 staff to provide our customers with end-to-end drilling solutions. I am also pleased that as part of the transaction Matt and Julie Izett will become significant shareholders in DDH1 Holdings and we look forward to working with them.”

Qtec, Wallis and UWA granted cash to expand real-time drill and assay technology

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The Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation and Science recently announced that the joint venture (JV) between Qtec, Wallis Drilling and the University of Western Australia has been awarded a three‑year grant from the Cooperative Research Centres Program (CRC-P) up to the value of A$2.8 million ($2 million).

Qteq, as the award recipients with Wallis and UWA as the JV partners, were awarded the grant for development of a real-time communications and downhole power generation system to be used with Qteq’s existing fleet of Measurement While Drilling instruments.

Following the initial phase of the project, the JV will work on developing Logging While Drilling tools that include nuclear magnetic resonance and spectroscopy, Qtec said.

The completed project will deliver the ability to provide real-time assay and moisture content during the reverse circulation drilling process, according to the company.

Qtec Chief Technology Officer, Dr Tim Hopper, said: “The ability to acquire assay and moisture content whilst drilling will dramatically change the face of minerals drilling in Australia. The cost and time reduction to clients is significant, with miners no longer needing to wait months to get cutting samples analysed before they can make decisions.

“When combined with the Wallis Drilling 300RC Autonomous Rig, the industry takes a step closer to achieving the ability to remotely drill and assay holes, with staff being able to monitor and direct operations remotely,” he said. “The mine of the future takes another step forward.”

The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science’s CRC-P aims to improve the competitiveness, productivity and sustainability of Australian industries, especially where Australia has a competitive strength and is in line with government priorities, according to Qtec.

“While the programme wishes to foster high-quality research to solve industry-identified problems through industry‑led and outcome-focused collaborative research partnerships between industry entities and research organisations, it also aims to encourage and facilitate small and medium enterprise participation in collaborative research,” the company added.

With the award of the grant, the Western Australia-based JV will be looking to further promote the use of high-quality, high-technology equipment in the mining industry which it hopes will further encourage WA’s highly skilled workforce to consider a career in this usually “low-tech industry”, Qtec said.

Qteq’s recently appointed Chief Executive Officer, Ewan Meldrum, said: “The development of this new, advanced logging system will support Australia in becoming a world leader in the commercialisation of mining technology and services.”

Australia georesources sector set for further consolidation with QTEQ/WSG merger

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Australia-based Qteq and Wireline Services Group (WSG) have agreed to join forces as they look to build a bigger domestic and overseas base in the georesources sector.

The merger, one of five corporate M&A transactions by Qteq in 2018, alone, signals an influx of innovative borehole measurement sensors and systems backed by two of the world’s leading geotechnical companies, Qtec said.

“The transaction will partner Qteq’s integrated technical services team with almost 80 field logging engineers across Australia and Canada,” the company added.

Qtec’s recent acquisition activity has seen it buy Surtech Systems and directional drilling and measurement-while-drilling (MWD) company WellServ, providing its clients with access to leading systems to collect accurate data on the composition and behaviour of subsurface rocks. WSG will complement this offering with its “safe, reliable and accurate” subsurface data acquisition and analysis services.

Qteq founder and CEO Simon Ashton said WSG shared the company’s vision for a “sustainable, environmentally responsible georesources sector”.

He added: “WSG’s 18 years of experience and dedicated team enhances Qteq’s national and international service capability beyond our current bases in every Australian state and core hubs overseas.”

The merger is supported by WSG founder and Managing Director Matthew Mayne, who will remain at Qteq as Managing Director of the Qteq Measurement Systems division, Qtec said. Mayne, who launched WSG more than 18 years ago, said the merger was a great opportunity for the company’s expertise to reach new markets.

“My first order of business will be driving the division’s regional and global growth, as Qteq continues to expand into South America, Africa and Canada,” Mayne said.

“The integration of the two companies will provide new opportunities across the georesources sector on a scale that has not been seen before. It will build and refine the skillset of our combined teams and provide our clients with direct access to Qteq’s innovative subsurface technologies.”

As a leading provider of subsurface geophysical and geotechnical measurement systems, and more than 30 logging units across Australia, Asia and Canada, WSG’s in-house data services team will work alongside Qteq’s client-focused team to increase the market uptake of Qteq’s technology portfolio, Qtec said.

Mayne said: “We aim to offer the most innovative, cutting edge subsurface data services and technology in the industry.

“Qteq’s research and development team, in Perth, is building a tech-based bridge from the oil and gas sector to the coal seam gas, mining and ground water industries, with elemental spectroscopy and MWD systems for RC drilling.”

Qtec said: “Qteq’s team is fully committed to providing an efficient and safe solution to the mine site automation trend that is changing the georesources industry. Measuring and monitoring the subsurface drives informed decision making, and protects the industry’s social licence to operate and meet community environmental expectations.”