Tag Archives: Wallis Drilling

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

Base metals, Energy minerals, Explosives and blasting, Mining equipment, Mining services, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.”

Orica acquires Wallis Drilling’s RIG Technologies RC logging while drilling business

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

Wallis Drilling says it has sold its RIG Technologies Reverse Circulation Logging While Drilling (LWD) business to explosives and blasting systems leader, Orica.

The RIG Technologies business includes, downhole behind-the-hammer geophysics sensors (gamma-ray and gyro), drill rig-based sensor platforms and a cloud-based data management system.

Wallis and RIG Technologies commenced as a joint venture in 2016, with Wallis acquiring the entire business in 2019.

Wallis says it successfully grown RIG Technologies and invested in the ongoing development of its LWD capabilities and associated products. At this point, the product suite is in the early phase of commercialisation and is being used by large resource companies, the company added.

The transaction delivers Wallis a solid return on its investment and provides significant upside sales exposure over the next five years under Orica stewardship, Wallis said.

Following the sale, RIG Technologies now forms part of Orica’s orebody intelligence category, within its digital solutions portfolio, alongside its recent acquisition of Hopper Industrial Group, a group of geophysics companies that specialise in mining and groundwater technologies and services.

RIG Technologies personnel, including 33 engineers, technical and field staff, will integrate into Orica. The business will continue to be led by original Partner and Director, Tim Hopper, with its operational and manufacturing activities remaining in Western Australia.

Wallis said: “RIG Technologies will independently continue to develop and deliver world-leading instrumentation and cloud-based technologies to help the mining industry obtain real-time geophysical and LWD data.”

Wallis and RIG Technologies will retain a five-year technical partnership to ensure continued testing and real-time deployment of the tools and other associated products in a field operating environment, it added.

Wallis Drilling Chairman, Graeme Wallis, said the sale enabled RIG Technologies to leverage its first-mover advantage and is overwhelmingly the best option for all stakeholders.

“The timing is right given where we have positioned the RIG Technologies business,” he said. “Orica has the financial resources, global customer base and distribution network to market and scale its product suite.

“For Wallis, the sale allows us to increase the rate of investment in our main drilling business. In recent years, strong organic growth has been accelerated by the design, manufacture and deployment of our leading range of Wallis RC and Mantis autonomous drill rigs.”

Wallis Drilling CEO, Mark Crumby, added: “Wallis has a successful history of innovation and commercialising new technologies for the mining industry. The development of RIG Technologies’ product suite, and its subsequent sale to Orica, is another example of this success.”

(Photo Credit: ‘csfoto – Christian Sprogoe photographer’)

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.”