The mineral exploration market continues to perform well despite economic headwinds, says exploration drilling products and services company Boart Longyear CEO Craig Kipp, who adds that the company is driving the continued expansion of its global footprint, rig activity and revenue.

Rig demand, product backlog and pricing in Boart Longyear’s drilling services and products businesses continue to generate a positive outlook.

Boart Longyear director for global product management and marketing communications Kevin Tomaszewski adds that the greatest challenge that the mining explor- ation industry faces is the uncertain cyclical demand patterns.

Despite this, the company plans to continue developing and deploying the latest technology in drilling processes.

“Our focus is on improving productivity and providing safer and more reliable performance,” says Tomaszewski.

He adds that future improvements made to rigs will rely on computer system controls to provide increased diagnostics during the drilling operation and automated processes, which include hands-free rod handling that removes the driller from dangerous activities.

The company will start selling its sonic drilling technology, including drill rigs and other equipment, to third parties this year.

“Sonic technology produces quality, undisturbed core samples quickly and produces less waste than conventional methods by using high-frequency vibratory dry drilling techniques,” says Tomaszewski.

Further, the company will soon complement its sonic product offerings with operator training services and after- market support.

One of Boart Longyear’s latest products is its reverse-circulation drill (RC6), which is engineered for fast setup on site and delivers increased productivity compared with other products.

“It is the smallest RC drill in the range and is designed to drill shallow holes quickly and efficiently. It can be configured for perform diamond coring and rotary drilling and its size provides ease of access for confined drilling sites,” says Tomaszewski.

Boart Longyear’s main activity in mining exploration is to provide drilling services and integrated products manufacturing.

The company has been developing and field-testing exploration drilling equipment for 120 years and builds surface and underground core-drilling rigs in addition to RC, sonic and multipurpose rigs.

“Our products and services are aimed at the mineral exploration industry, mining development and production, environmental projects, infrastructure and energy markets,” says Tomaszewski.

Further, he explains that, generally, drilling operations require the use of a drill rig, diamond bits, a drill rod and wireline tooling.

This equipment is used to drill and retrieve core samples as deep as 4 000 m. Throughout the drilling process, a core sample is retrieved every 6 m for analysis by a geologist who determines the mineral deposit size, location and type.

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