In a recent article published by National Driller and entitled, “Tips for Situational Awareness to Keep Drilling Jobs Safer,” Brock Yordy, a global drill trainer and consultant, states, “If we know what is dangerous and respect it, we can minimize the possibility for failure that leads to injury or death. Reducing risk or tragedy depends on situational awareness of the entire job.”

Mr. Yordy shared with us that during his career he has worked on several Boart Longyear sites in North America and Latin America. Along with these and other exciting career experiences, he’s learned a lot about understanding ones surroundings to best adapt thinking and behavior and create a safer working environment.

This informative article continues with a number of insights and beneficial tips to guide drillers through recognizing what hazards are present and the actions they can take to keep them and their crews safe. Points made include understanding the environment, conditions, weather, and consideration of local wildlife. Next, drillers need to adhere to consistent practices, trying not to introduce variables that could catch people off guard.

“The risk area around rotating drill rods is the first that gets taken for granted.” This truth often leads to trouble in the field and allows Mr. Yordy to introduce observations and more helpful information that drillers should consider.

We recommend reading the full article, “Tips for Situational Awareness to Keep Drilling Jobs Safer,” written by Brock Yordy and published on National Driller’s website.

Boart Longyear employs progressive and effective safety programs to protect the health and safety of our employees, contractors, and visitors at all of our sites and facilities. The company enjoys a unique position as not only are we a pioneer of innovative equipment, but through our Drilling Services division we also get to use the equipment in the field and experience firsthand what is needed to get the job done right. Safety tips are continually shared and situations monitored to educate and cultivate an interdependent safety culture.

Please share your safety tips by clicking on the gray discussion bar below.

The SMA recognized Boart Longyear as the mining contractor with the best safety stats in 2017. The hours worked in 2017 included a specialized shaft sinking project and the demobilization of the Cameco McArthur River as the mine moved to care and maintenance.

The SMA uses reported stats for safety incidents including first aid medical consultant frequency, medical incident frequency, modified work days severity, lost time injury, and days lost severity to base the recognition.

SMA is an industry-driven organization representing the mining and mineral exploration industry with over 25 mining operations in the province. The Saskatchewan Mining Association is an industry-funded organization that has been in existence for over 50 years. The SMA is considered by provincial and federal governments to be the Voice of the Mining Industry in Saskatchewan. SMA represents its members by engaging in government advocacy, public awareness, including educational outreach and member development.

Below, pictured left to right: Rob Jackson, SMA Board Liaison to Safety Committee, Honourable Bronwyn Eyre, Minister of Energy & Resources, Jimmy Barrieau, EHST Regional Manager, Boart Longyear and Mike Carr, Deputy Minister, Labour Relations & Workplace Safety

- Jason Lamb, US/Mexico Commercial Manager

Congratulations to all of the crews and leadership that played a part in earning this great achievement and recognition from our client! 
 
The Robinson mine is located in White Pine County, Nevada, USA, in the Egan Range. The mine is comprised of 3 large pits: Liberty (mining re-commenced in 2004, KGHM acquired in 2012), Tripp-Veteran (closed) and Ruth, currently in operation. The mine’s beginnings can be traced back to 1876. Since then, with some minor breaks, copper, gold and silver and recently molybdenum have been extracted. KGHM INTERNATIONAL LTD. acquired the mine in April 2004. Mining is conducted by conventional open-pit methods. It comprises extraction using blasting materials and dump trucks, loading and ore transport to a processing plant. The ore is crushed and then subjected to flotation. The acquired concentrate is thickened and filtered.

Lawyers play an important role in protecting interests, but when you have a Master Services Agreement in place, you can put a drill rig to work on a drilling project without having to wait for the legal departments from both sides to negotiate terms.  They’ve already been negotiated in the Master Services Agreement so everybody saves time and money by not having to negotiate terms for each project.

You can realize additional cost savings utilizing a Master Services Agreement by having one drilling contractor onsite running multiple drilling projects. This allows one onsite drilling supervisor, onsite maintenance across multiple drill pads, shared resources and consumables and streamlined invoicing. Having one drilling contractor onsite for multiple drilling disciplines also means one less contractor to manage for compliance and performance.

In addition to saving time and money, the drilling contractor can mobilize and get started on a project faster, without having to wait for every term and condition of the relationship to be negotiated to mutual satisfaction. A Master Services Agreement ensures that drilling can start as soon as a scope of work is defined and accepted. This can save weeks and months – and time is money.

Negotiating a Master Services Agreement does not necessarily guarantee drilling projects will be awarded, but it can offer the opportunity to negotiate better terms for a long-term relationship with drilling contractors to achieve cost savings on a global, regional or national scale.

Master Services Agreements may take a bit longer to initially negotiate, but in the long term, they prove to be easier to renew, re-negotiate and amend. They are also easier to administer, monitor and use across different drilling disciplines. For example, when used with drilling contractors, a Master Services Agreement can cover all types of drilling across a mine including pre-collaring, surface, underground and water services drilling.

Master Services Agreements allow a high-level view of the parties’ overall business relationship. Confidentiality addressed in a Master Services Agreement can cover the entire project including the proposal and statement of work to alleviate worries of exposing sensitive information.

For risk, if individual agreements are used for each project, a limitation of liability capping risk may not be reasonable or acceptable. But if the overall relationship is considered, there may be a greater opportunity to negotiate such a limit on the risk exposure arising from the relationship. This can be especially beneficial when you’re hiring a drilling contractor for multiple drilling disciplines.

A Master Services Agreement may seem daunting, but if you’re considering one with your drilling contractors, contact Boart Longyear for best practices and our experience in making Master Services Agreements work for both parties.       

Imagine having a drilling project scope of work and being able to pick up the phone and have a rig turning in 7-10 days. That’s the real beauty of Master Services Agreements.

Sonic drilling offers distinct benefits:

Superior information: Since the sonic cutting action sheers the soil cleanly and no fluid is present to dilute the sample, this method results in a relatively undisturbed sample through any type of soil. You get at or near 100 percent core recovery, continuous to the depth, which means superior subsurface information for decision making.

Speed: The combination of vibration and slow rotation allows the casing to quickly advance through unconsolidated formations, providing a penetration rate up to three times faster than traditional overburden drilling.

Reduced waste: With efficient cutting and no fluid involved, drill spoils and waste are reduced by up to 80 percent compared with conventional drilling.

Accurate to depth transitions

Uranium formations

These advantages give miners more control in planning projects and managing resources. The use of sonic drilling minimizes the risk of a project failing or being delayed due to unknown or difficult subsurface conditions, and decreases overall time and costs. It also lessens the impact to the environment.

Because of these benefits, sonic drilling works well for a variety of mining applications. Drillers can sample unconsolidated ore piles and tabulate reserves from legacy stockpiles, whose medium- to low-grade ores can be efficiently processed today. They can also study leaching effectiveness, pinpointing dry zones and optimizing the leaching process of desired minerals.

These features also make sonic rigs ideal for shallow drilling in overburden or precollaring before a conventional drill takes over to drill deeper into bedrock.

Sonic drilling is well suited for geotechnical studies for mine construction and other building projects. Additionally, because some sonic rigs are smaller and have very low ground pressure, they can operate successfully in environmentally sensitive areas; for example, they can drill without ruining asphalt or landscaped areas or sinking into marshy, swampy land.

While sonic drilling has been employed by the mining industry in the United States since the late 1980s, it is still an emerging technology in many countries. Boart Longyear has been a forerunner in sonic technology and has the world’s largest selection of advanced sonic rigs and highly trained drillers. Time and again we’ve experienced the exceptional subsurface information and other benefits this specialized technology can offer drillers, especially in the difficult formations that often frustrate the search for minerals.