SA-made drill rig ready for global play

AN innovative new drill rig, developed and tested in Adelaide by mining companies and research organisations, has been licenced to a global mining services company.

AN innovative new drill rig, developed and tested in Adelaide by miners, explorers and research organisations, has been licenced to a global mining services company.

The RoXplorer coiled tubing rig will now be developed commercially by global mining equipment, technology and services giant IMDEX.

The rig developed by Adelaide-based Deep Exploration Technologies Cooperative Research Centre (DET CRC) is undergoing final preparations for a drilling trial on a Barrick Gold exploration site in Nevada, USA.

The RoXplorer CT rig is a revolutionary change in mineral exploration drilling where individual drill rods have been replaced by a continuous steel coil.

Drilling and tripping into and out of the hole proceeds without the need to connect and disconnect rods, making drilling safer, faster and cheaper for explorers.

The rig is driven by downhole (as opposed to conventional surface) motors and is smaller, has lower fuel consumption and a smaller footprint than equivalent conventional drill rigs.

IMDEX’s global business development director Derek Loughlin said the company intends to work closely with Barrick Gold on the Nevada trial and in identifying a commercial model to bring the technology to market. “The RoXplorer CT rig is a technology that could be disruptive to conventional drilling methods with the promise of significant productivity, safety and environmental performance,” he said.

DET CRC’s former chair Dr Tom Whiting said there were significant achievements at the research centre, which officially concluded at the end of June after eight years of innovation.

“All of DET CRC’s major technologies (Wireless Sub, Lab-at-Rig, AutoSonde, AutoShuttle and RoXplorer CT drilling system) have been taken to working prototype and licenced in revenue-generating agreements to our supplier participants, Boart Longyear and IMDEX.

“DET CRC has demonstrated the value of the CRC Program in the mining industry, along with the value of government support, open innovation, and of committed industry participants who persevered with their support through the 2012-2016 downturn in the mining industry.”

Most of the intellectual property has now been transferred into a new CRC although the trials at Brukunga have come to an end.

Boart Longyear continues to lease the site from the state government for its own testing needs, Mr Whiting told The Advertiser.