Master Drilling automation strategy progressing
SECUNDA (miningweekly.com) – As specialised drilling services group Master Drilling embarked on a new raiseboring project for Sasol Mining, executive director Koos Jordaan said that the newly JSE-listed firm was progressing its drilling automation strategies.
Master Drilling was undertaking a four-phase project to enhance site safety, increase efficiency and lower the costs of raiseboring shafts.
The initiative would bring down the number of workers on site to a minimum and advance and intensify upskilling of operators.
The efficiency of raiseboring was expected to be 30% higher, while productivity, based on results from the group's first live automated project in South America last year, could potentially double as mechanisation and automation progressed.
It also enabled increased drilling depths, up to 14 m, a day.
The company this week started raiseboring at Sasol Mining's Riversdale shaft at the Syferfontein colliery, near Secunda.
The project included the raiseboring of two ventilation shafts about 73 m deep and 7.1 m in diameter.
Last year, Master Drilling achieved record directional drilling at Lonmin mine with a 1 070 m deep, 5.5 m diameter ventilation shaft.
The Sasol ventilation project, which was expected to be completed by the end of August, would also use a remote-controlled shotcrete robot to line the shaft.
The automation process would develop as Master Drilling progressed its in-house technology, with the next phases' development currently under way, enabling the implementation by year-end of fully automated insertion and removal of the drill rods and automatic remote controlled spanners, besides others.
Comments
The
content
you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.
If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.
If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.
For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation