Zac has a bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering and a master’s degree in business administration. He started at the company in 2006 as a new product development engineer in diamond drilling products. He’s held other roles such as product manager for capital equipment spares and operations manager for aftermarket and fleet maintenance. He has been in his current role as product manager, capital drilling equipment since 2015.

Our host, Jon Peterson (Geo Jon for fun), works for the Products division as a Customer Service Representative. Jon graduated from the University of Utah in 2015 with his Bachelors of Science in Geology. He’s worked for Boart Longyear for the last two and a half years and interned as a geologist with an exploration company for about six months prior to coming to work for Boart Longyear. Jon has been married for a year and a half and in his free time enjoys trail running, hiking, working on his yard, spending time with family, and playing with his black lab Dexter. 

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Designing and planning a drilling project can be a complex exercise.  Many risk factors should be considered to mitigate issues that could impact productivity and/or budgets. Some of these facts include permitting and licensing which could ultimately impede the progress and success of the project. After careful planning, there is a healthy amount of cautious optimism that everything has been properly addressed and planned for, however, there is always that small chance something was missed.

Mistakes or missteps can be costly if your project doesn’t have everything in place when it comes to licensing and permitting.

While it doesn’t happen very often, paying a drilling contractor stand-by rates waiting for a project that’s been scheduled, but not properly authorized or permitted takes money from the project itself. How much more exploration could have been achieved with the money lost by paying for services and support that cannot move forward because a project is delayed on a technicality – usually paperwork?  There’s a risk of reputation as well. Costly mistakes are not great for anyone’s career or a company’s reputation regardless of the jurisdiction.

While Boart Longyear is no expert in licensing and permitting, the experts are out there. Boart Longyear maintains working relationships with local consulting and engineering firms as well as government agencies and you should too. When planning a diamond core exploratory drilling project, it is highly recommended that you ensure all license and permit requirements are met before the drill crew and necessary equipment mobilizes. Additionally, careful planning for the size of the drill pad for the permits and figuring out the logistics of accessing a site can save time and money later. For more information, ask Boart Longyear about their equipment specifications in order to prepare the proper size drill pads and access roads. That way, a budget estimate for all aspects of the work can be adequately prepared to complete a project safely and effectively.

Drill pad layout can be just as critical to a safe, smooth, and successful drilling program. A drill pad setup where safety or productivity is compromised can result in wasted expense and possibly lead to an accident. Not having permits with the right amount of surface disturbance for the project is a risk that can be mitigated with communication. A miscalculation in required disturbance area can lead to holes being removed from the scope of the project to remain in compliance with regulators.

Working diligently with all stakeholders in the permitting application process helps ensure the exploration/project team(s) and the environmental/permitting team(s) are on the same page. A simple oversight or misunderstanding can possibly delay site mobilization or start-up. Ideally, these conversations should happen early in the planning stages of the drilling program.

For more information, ask Boart Longyear about their equipment specifications in order to prepare the proper size drill pads and access roads. That way, a budget estimate for all aspects of the work can be adequately prepared to complete a project safely and effectively.

One of the biggest challenges of licensing and permitting for a diamond core drilling project is timing. Depending on workload and resources, government entities are not typically known for their speed. Early planning and working with experts can ensure the timing of licensing and permitting doesn’t affect your project start date. Obtaining most permits and licenses takes longer than expected in most cases. Proper planning and early submission to agencies are highly recommended.

Boart Longyear, if asked, can direct clients to a number of qualified groups in order to plan and help permit their programs before sending out RFP’s. Boart Longyear also works closely with a variety of consulting groups for clients that are in need of expert and sometimes urgent support. 

If you’re planning an exploration project, contact a Boart Longyear representative for a consultation. We are here for you and happy to help.

A lot of drilling companies run every drill rig part to failure. Meaning, they don’t replace anything on the drill rig until it fails. At the other end of the spectrum, a truly preventive maintenance program replaces parts on a fixed and planned interval regardless of wear or condition of the part. When following one or the other, neither of these philosophies is necessarily the most cost-effective philosophy. Running parts to failure can cause minor or major breakdowns. And it goes without saying, any breakdown, small or significant, costs money – lost productivity, jeopardizing up-time contractual obligations, and lost drilling time waiting for replacement parts.

Sonic head water swivel

Even though planning is critical, a strictly preventive maintenance program also costs more by replacing parts regardless of condition and leaving some life of that part on the table. And just because the engine is running (typically gauged by service hours) – not all components are exposed to the same amount of wear. Some components are used more frequently depending on the type of drilling and the size and type of the borehole. Additionally, environmental factors can affect the wear on components and parts including the weather, dust, sand, cuttings, wet, damp, salty, atmospheric conditions (high and low elevations affect air density and can impact how components perform, age, and fail), and ground conditions are all factors affecting drill rig components. Taking it all into consideration, the life of different components can vary greatly.

While regular and routine maintenance is important and definitely helps reliability, it can still be easy to miss tell-tale signs of wear and critical upcoming replacements. Replacing parts before running them to failure can help avoid larger breakdowns and costly downtime. We recommend frequent, planned inspections in place of a comprehensive preventive-only maintenance program where parts are replaced before they fail. A drill rig maintenance program of regular inspections, planned preventive maintenance, and scheduled major maintenance/overhauls is the better way to lower and manage your cost of ownership and keep your machines running and drilling reliably.

If you are not already doing it, a condition based preventive maintenance program based on frequent visual inspections can be implemented with the right checklists and change management processes for your field employees. Develop a routine for drill rig inspections or audits using standardized checklists as a guide to check condition and identify parts showing wear and near end of life. Next, the report is used to build a list of parts so you can place component orders and plan for downtime to maintain your rig.

Taking the time to do an assessment to prepare, order, and plan for any future maintenance is the most cost-effective method to get the most out of your long-term assets.

The key is taking the time to do an assessment of the condition of the rig, on a regular basis. Depending on the type of rig, the type of drilling, and up-time contractual obligations, you can schedule a mechanic to visit the rig on site, keep a mechanic on call, or take the drill rig back to the shop for major repairs/regular overhauls.

Sonic oscillating weights for LS600 sonic drill head

Sonic oscillation weights for LS250 MiniSonic head

Boart Longyear uses its technical services group to keep its drill rigs running and can send our technical services group out to your site or shop to do drill rig assessments. The two goals of any drill rig assessment are to:

1. Identify what is damaged or wearing out.

2. Build a recommendation to include the required parts to order and when and where (onsite or in a workshop) repairs need to be performed.

Boart Longyear’s Drilling Services has daily, weekly, and monthly inspection checklists for all drill rigs. Checklists for regular drill rig inspections doesn’t need to be specific to the drill rig, you can use a general checklist that applies to all rigs.

To make it easier for our customers, there is a comprehensive spare parts list for every Boart Longyear drill rig in the Service and Parts Information Network (SPIN). SPIN is a real-time, online, drill rig parts catalog so you can view and find genuine Boart Longyear parts and drill rig manuals, access interactive drill rig diagrams, and view parts manuals. SPIN also makes it easier to search and find the parts you need for your next service interval. Visit https://www.boartlongyear.com/product/spin/ to register to access SPIN today.

As the world’s leading drilling products and services provider, Boart Longyear understands how spare parts and service availability is critical to the success of a drilling operation. Consider us your partner in keeping your projects running, with lower operating costs and higher returns on your equipment investments.

Boart Longyear rigs are designed to meet demanding conditions. Boart Longyear genuine parts are engineered, manufactured, and selected to also meet demanding conditions. With genuine parts, you know you’re receiving parts that are specifically designed and engineered for that purpose, along with Boart Longyear’s global strategy and support.

This article originally appeared in GeoDrilling International, October 2018 edition, pages 16-17.

The MDR500 was the long-term brain child of Geoff Moroney (Drilling Services Asia Pacific Fleet & Asset Manager) and John Kirkwood (Drilling Services Asia Pacific Regional Director). The project was given the go ahead in the third quarter of 2016 after market research indicated that there was a desire from sections of the Australian market for a medium depth underground diamond drill rig which was in the most part self-sufficient and could move quickly from hole to hole. The concept design kicked off at the start of December 2016 and the first completed rig rolled out of the workshop in early December 2017.

The basis of the idea was to convert the existing MDR150s in the Australian fleet into MDR500s. The original MDR150 was designed and built by Geoff Moroney and Nathan Kaesler (now Global R&D Engineering Manager) nearly 10 years earlier, back when Geoff was working on tooling and Nathan was a fresh, keen, new engineer at Boart Longyear. The MDR150 consists of a 75kw power pack and a nimble 400 series feed frame mounted to the telescoping boom of a very solid Normet carrier, finished off with 144m of on board rod storage. It is perfect for quick, short holes on sites where the manual handling of rods into the drill string is allowed. The MDR500 meets the increasing demand within the market for a mobile rig for deeper holes combined with the ever increasing push to reduce manual handling. That combined with the MDR150’s being almost 10 years old, most in need of a major rebuild and with several key control system components outdated, it made sense to convert these MDR150’s into new MDR500s.

With the project coinciding with the first prototype tests of the upcoming LMi underground power pack platform it was an easy decision for the design group to choose the new 110kW LMi design to power and control the drill that consists of a Boart Longyear HQ high speed drilling head mounted on a 700 series feed frame and utilizing a standard underground rod handler. After the basic concept was decided upon, the project became somewhat of a complex packaging task for the Asia Pacific Drilling Services Engineering team. Finding ways to shoehorn all of the LMi components along with the 500m of rods onto the carrier and then design an arm that could hold the much heavier drill out the front of the rig while still allowing a full 360 degree horizontal and plus 90 to negative 90 degree drilling angles to be achieved was no easy task.

An innovative concept from Stewart Jones allowing for the front rod bin to sit over the front axle during transit and then tilt into a vertical configuration on either side of the rig during use allowing for ergonomic rod handling was an additional bonus along the way. The project was certainly not without its challenges with some strengthening of the Normet chassis and a larger front axle being required to take the substantially heavier load now carried by the front of the machine.

The tight project timeline meant that the design and build had to happen concurrently and the team in the workshop, under the direction of the lead fitter on the project, Darren Watson, did a superb job of building and assembling the first rig despite only having half-finished designs and partial drawings in the beginning. Designing the hosing runs for the MDR500 was a mammoth task given the amount of movement required from the front arm and the workshop team were pivotal in the design and build of this, much of it being designed in the workshop at the rig.

As the heavy lifting on behalf of the mechanical team was nearing completion the design baton had well and truly already been passed over to the then products engineering electrical and control systems duo of Bernie Chia and Glen Verrall to make this rig come to life with all control of both the setup functions and the drill handled through either the touch screen interface in the cab of the carrier or from the LMi electronic control panel. Glen worked his magic to weave the additional MDR functions seamlessly into a modified version of the LMi software.

Throughout the project the engineering team was in close contact with the end users in the field, chiefly Matt Barnes who leads the operational team at the MMG Dugald River Mine in Queensland where the first two MDR500s were deployed. This collaboration occurred through every phase of the project starting with a site trip by the engineering project team to scope out the requirements of the rig with Matt and his team to ensure that the end result would be just what was required. The team’s involvement continued throughout with Matt being an invaluable subject matter expert and also a key participant in the design reviews and risk assessments. The project was closed out with an engineering site visit in early January 2018 and then again in March coinciding with the operational deployment of each of the MDR500s to Dugald River. The primary purpose of these visits being to train the operators on the features of the new rig and to be at hand to fix any issues immediately should they arise.  Luckily there were no significant issues and Glen was able to use the trips as a valuable source of driller feedback for further LMi software development.

The first MDR500 arrived on site and after going through its routine site clearance inspections basically went straight to work drilling its first hole without issue. This was in no small part due to the significant contributions from the operations team throughout the project and the quick adoption of the new rig by the drillers. The drillers at Dugald River were quick to pick up the MDR500’s new LMi control system and their level of acceptance of the interface has been very pleasing. The Dugald River team were quickly outperforming their meter rate achieved with the previous MDR150s and are now averaging an impressive 2 additional meters per hour.

A third MDR500 is nearing completion in the Adelaide Workshop and when complete, will be used as a carrot for attracting new work with several potential sites currently being discussed. If the market demand remains strong the intention is to steadily convert the aging fleet of 8 remaining MDR150s into MDR500s over the next few years with the possibility of sourcing additional carriers to make even more if required.

The MDR500 has and is continuing to be a success in the field and a key point of interest for the Asia Pacific Drilling Services team when negotiating underground drilling contracts. The success of the project was obviously the result of a lot of hard work, but also the excellent teamwork and collaborative effort exhibited by the various Boart Longyear functional groups involved, with many more people than could be mentioned here playing an important part in the project.

Boart Longyear operates the exclusive LR90H Horizontal Drilling Rig for mine dewatering. This FOPS Level II certified rig drills a hole at a 5-degree angle for self-draining dewatering – directly against a high-wall face for the best productivity. This electric rig offers completely hands-free rod handling and can drill 152 to 182 m (500-600 ft) in a shift to depths of 450 m (1500 ft).

Recently, a client requested that the driller controls be moved away from the rig for 24/7 operations. At night, it’s difficult to monitor high walls visually. By moving the driller and the controls away from the high-wall in a remote operations cab, drilling can safely occur even at night when high-wall movement can be missed visually.

The LR90H drill rig will continue to work directly against the high-wall and the driller controls will be extended to a custom trailer and a remote operations cab that can be approximately 150 feet away from the high-wall, thus removing the driller and crew from hazards.

The LR90H is equipped with hands-free rod handling.

The remote operator system will maintain the current control panel functions in the cab and have a pass function that only allows operation from one location at a time to avoid unwanted operation of any function.

The new remote cab will move the driller out of the rig and away from the dangers of working directly against a high wall.

Communication with the rig will be via umbilical cord connections and the inline electric operated pilot controls will look and feel as much like the current control panel on the rig. The remote operations trailer will be equipped with six cameras capable of night vision showing needed angles and with viewing monitors in the cabin. Current LED lighting will be doubled for better night vision and an intercom system will be installed for communication to helpers outside. Due to the electric power, operating noise levels are extremely low compared to its Diesel Hydraulic brother. The mobile drill cabin trailer will be a 7.5X14 foot mobile office trailer, set up with electrical, insulation, lights, windows, air conditioning, and heat.

It’s just another example of how Boart Longyear is, at your service.