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the MDR150’s being almost 10 years old, most in need of a major rebuild and with several key control system components outdated, it made sense to convert these MDR150’s into new MDR500s.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.

With the current procedure, the StopeMaster rig had to be escorted by a scoop in front of and behind the equipment on every move. The StopeMaster rig is essential in production drilling in the mine, but slow to move and it would hold up traffic on the ramp as it moved throughout the mine. This process was costing the mine time and resources.

In order to solve this challenge, Boart Longyear’s Drilling Services engineering team created a multi-phase plan to add both functionality and mobility to the existing StopeMaster equipment. The first phase of the plan was to design and build a more mobile StopeMaster rig, then move to hands-free rod handling, and finally to semi-autonomous drilling.

With the combined dedication of many remarkable Boart Longyear employees around the world, the team started engineering a new Stopemaster MDR rig that would solve the issues the mining company was experiencing.

A few weeks before the MDR rig was to be delivered, representatives from Boart Longyear’s Drilling Services team accompanied the mine’s pre-assessment team to scour every nook and cranny of the prototype rig to proactively identify and address conformance to the customer’s standards.

To ensure successful deployment of the new StopeMaster MDR mobile drill rig, a specialized Boart Longyear team spent 16 days onsite working out all the fine details and making sure everything was up and operating smoothly. The team included dedicated percussive drillers and a senior production designer.

On the afternoon of March 10, 2018, the very first Stopemaster MDR rig took to the ramp as it entered the portal for its inaugural deployment at a mine in Northern Ontario, Canada. Shortly thereafter, it collared its very first hole.

From the moment the rig arrived at the mine, the Boart Longyear team worked diligently with the customer to rapidly address any new concerns identified by the onsite reviewers. Over the subsequent days, the drilling team quickly learned the new LMi interfaces - a couple of joysticks, a knob, and a touchscreen had replaced the recognizable matrix of gauges and controls native to the stalwart StopeMaster machine. 

(Left-to-Right) Boart Longyear employees: Willie Coderre, Tyler Allin, Zane Clark, Al Portugie, James Forest, Dan Kirkey

After days of fine tuning the rig and tweaking the software controlling the rod handling aspects of the drill, the drillers were finally allowed to drill. These enthusiastic men cooperated as a tag team to complete the first 17-meter hole that expectantly broke through a known water fault that cascaded 4°C water down onto the drill and drillers. 

Then it was time for a crew change, and a new set of drillers embarked on the project. The next hole had to be drilled in the stope with a cascade of refreshing Canadian ground-water endlessly spewing onto the drill. Without much of a grumble, the assigned driller donned his oilers and dutifully braved the damp, frigid conditions, rod after rod. The drill was struggling to dig with the last few rods, so the dedicated driller pulled them all to check the bit, then sent the drill string right back up. Only later was the penetration issue attributed to a malfunctioning valve, but the driller trudged through. With half a meter to go, the shift was over and it was time to quit for the day.

Due to logistical challenges that followed, some members of the drilling crew were, for one reason or another, temporarily unavailable. Another team member accepted the challenge of training on the new drill.

Willie Coderre tramming the MDR into its first Stope.

He diligently battled through the still undiagnosed valve issue to complete the last half meter of the previous hole and followed that performance up by completing a 17-meter-long hole of his own. With the drill onsite for well over a week at this point, the latest driller now held the “Most Meters Drilled” title for the new StopeMaster MDR rig. 

After agonizing over the extremely slow penetration rate, the striking bar on the drifter snapped with only three more meters left in the hole. The crew replaced the striking bar and completed the stubborn hole. 

While repositioning the drill for the next hole, the driller was quickly able to identify a weakness in one of the actuators that deploys the drill’s outriggers. The drill was again shut down and made safe before the team made their way back up to the surface to brainstorm a plan to reinforce the outrigger. With a plan in hand, the team took another maintenance day to execute the fix.

With the outrigger issues now resolved, the drill was successfully repositioned and began another hole, this time with the team focusing a keen eye on the detailed micro-behaviors throughout the drilling process. The drilling team was able to identify and diagnose the misbehaving valve and in no time, the new drill received a replacement part. A couple of hoses here, a few bolts there, and the feed pressure control was snatched from the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and temporarily placed back into the hands of an experienced longhole driller.

Finally, with multiple issues resolved, the team united to attempt to get some meters drilled without issues. With the drill behaving much better, five holes were easily drilled for a total of 83 meters that day.

Although challenges were initially experienced with the prototype, having the Boart Longyear team available onsite meant they could quickly adapt, adjust and correct any problems. Because of their dedicated teamwork, the crew was able to deliver on the customer’s request to upgrade the StopeMaster to a mobile drill rig with rod handling and semi-autonomous drilling.

The newly commissioned StopeMaster MDR rig solved the issues of moving the StopeMaster, making moves from stope to stope faster and requiring less time and resources from the mine. The StopeMaster MDR equipment is also safer with rod handling capabilities and semi-autonomous drilling with a new LMi control panel which controls both the rod handler and the StopeMaster MDR rig.

Near the coastlines of Northeastern Newfoundland sits the Ming Mine, operated by Rambler Metals and Mining. Rambler was in need of an important ventilation raise to install 400,000 cfm ventilation exhaust fans for their ventilation system up to the surface. 

Rambler first started out on the project utilizing two different surface drills but were unsuccessful. Then they contemplated using an Alimak raise climber or mining a conventional raise using stoper drills.

However, both of these alternatives were unattractive due to their time and costs.

Rambler then discussed the situation with Brian Winsor, Boart Longyear long hole driller, who proposed using a Boart Longyear Stopemaster to complete the complicated drop raise.

Brian drilled his first hole but did not break through. Undeterred, Brian approximated the location of that hole using the deviation distance and offset his second drill hole which ultimately did break through. Brian drilled the remaining holes using a pattern based on the initial breakthrough hole. The drilling went smoothly and as per the plan Brian created, based on the initial breakthrough hole.

Brian blasted the raise, squaring up the face and bringing up the cut to breakthrough to the surface. He blasted the remaining drill holes to the full design of the ventilation raise.

No damage was sustained to any of the high-voltage power lines and surface installations which were in close proximity to the surface collar location and the blasting was completed without delays to the underground mining.

Brian was able to complete this project to Rambler’s satisfaction using drilling intuition, critical thought, and hard work. He was able to, as Dan Kirkey, Division Manager, Drilling Services and Production Drilling Services, commented “Drill the raise by “feel” rather than by engineered drawings making this especially impactful showing his skill as a driller.” Brian has recieved a Bravo! award and client recognition for his success. Congratulations!

Learn more about Boart Longyear's Production Drilling Services

Boart Longyear has been working at Olympic Dam as part of a long term agreement with BHP Billiton. As the operation continues to grow, improved productivity and safety is demanded for exploitation of newly defined ore zones. Boart Longyear has answered this need by developing drilling technologies and methods for improved diamond core drilling.

The past introduction of rod-handlers, by Boart Longyear, reduced drilling contractors’ exposure to the manual handling of rods, leading to limited occurrences of hand injuries. Boart Longyear also participated in a study involving rig-moves which resulted in improved site move time by 11 percent. Now Boart Longyear has developed and implemented the Drill Control Interface (DCi) to increase the efficiency, productivity and safety of the LM series of underground diamond core drill rigs.

Increase productivity of underground diamond core drilling

Boart Longyear provides diamond core drilling services at the Olympic Dam mine site. Diamond drilling is used to extract rock samples (core) for analysis of the Olympic Dam ore body geometry and to collect geochemical information which will be used to create block models for planning and extraction of future resources.

Boart Longyear was able to introduce the DCi to not only increase productivity, but to also enhance safety for the drilling contractors.

DCi increases meters drilled

Over a six month period (May – October 2013) Boart Longyear used an LM75 drill rig with the DCi to drill a total of 5,726.3 meters using a BQTK size diamond core bit. This was an increase of 907.7 meters drilled over the previous six month average, which resulted in a unit cost improvement of $2.90 per meter average and monthly productivity increase of 13.5 percent.

With the deepest hole depth of 700 meters drilled on site, the DCi allowed Boart Longyear to continue drilling during crib breaks and shift change over. This is possible because the DCi incorporates a programmable logic control (PLC) system where a supervisor can pre-set parameters for drilling. These parameters create a semi-autonomous drill system allowing the LM75 to achieve a three meter run in absence of a driller.

The DCi PLC system results in fewer hoses, less leaks and clutter around the drill. A supervisor can set drilling parameters for inexperienced operators and an auto shutdown will occur when a drill run ends or programmed parameters are exceeded. Also a laser proximity will shut down the rig when breached — keeping drillers at a safe distance at all times.

A fully electronic user interface means the DCi has a lighter and more portable control cabinet compared to hydraulic controls. The 50 kilogram (110.23 lb) weight difference and the limited number of components allows drillers to move the unit easier and faster. There are only three plugs to disconnect from the DCi and no hydraulic hoses.

The PLC allows one push of a button for unattended drilling. By drilling within the pre-set parameters set by a supervisor, the LM75 can achieve greater equipment life and greater productivity from inexperienced drillers. Also, an auto rod feed and pull system results in less manual handling and a hands-free wireline descent.

The DCi provides real time key performance data which is recorded, stored and easily downloaded for quick analysis. This current information allows a driller to make adjustments to the drill rig increasing productivity on the go. Because the DCi provides significant instrumentation data, a system diagnostic can be run to determine rig performance, operator performance and can detect early equipment failure.