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DIRECTIONAL DRILLING DIRECTS MINES
TO BIGGER PROFITS Directional drilling, a popular technology in the oil patch for over 80 years, is slowly coming to the mining industry. And, just as it has saved money for oil companies, directional drilling is offering the same savings to mining companies. Directional drilling is the technique of drilling out at an angle from a borehole. It has many uses like reaching formations under lakes, towns, or ecologically sensitive areas. It’s also used to create several wells from one point. For instance, in the ocean, one drilling platform can actually be the terminus for dozens of oil wells. Today this technology is being introduced to mining by International Directional Services (IDS), a directional borehole services company found on the Carling Trend, in Arizona, and Canada. ”We’ve been bringing oil field technology into mining,” says Jason Smith, Operations Manager for IDS. “We don’t know anybody else that is doing this.” Unlike traditional directional drilling, new technologies allow
a much more accurate placement of the drill, which allows mines
to hit more difficult targets like small ore bodies and tunnels.
Older technologies meant the drilling team had to pull up the
entire drill pipe in order to get an accurate idea of where the
face of the drill hole was. They would send a camera down the
hole to determine azimuth and inclination. These pictures often
had to be taken every few dozen to every few hundred feet depending
on factors like whether or not the drill team was changing angle
or direction. This took time and cost a lot of money. MAKING MONEY FROM DIRECTIONAL DRILLING IDS has used its oil patch connections to bring new directional drilling technology to mining. “The oil industry is about ten years ahead of mining,” Smith confesses. But that doesn’t mean mines don’t have a need for the latest technology. One popular application, especially in the Carlin Trend according to Smith, is drilling one hole through the first 2,000 feet and then drilling several core holes from that one hole. “They (the geologists) know what is in the first 2,000 feet,” says Smith. Since standard coring rates run about $25 a foot, a 2,000 foot coring drill hole costs about $50,000. Consequently, an exploration program can easily spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in wasted holes. By drilling several core holes from one borehole, a mine can easily save $25,000 on each hole. This allows the mine to save money and time during the exploration phase. Another popular use of directional drilling is to avoid geological constraints. For instance, if a drill goes through a fault, it is common for the drill to be deflected by the fault. With the real time feedback from the drill, operators will immediately know if there is a problem and rectify it immediately. The result is a more accurate hole and less wasted time. Even if you aren’t contemplating directional drilling, IDS’s orienting systems allow for more accurate vertical holes. This is critical if a mine is trying to intersect a specific part of an ore body or if the mine is drilling a utility hole that intersects a tunnel. Both require extremely accurate drill placement. Although it’s easy to think of mining in terms of bringing ore to the surface and processing it, every mine begins with an exploration phase. That phase determines the economic viability of the ore body and how the ore will be extracted. And, the more accurate that drilling phase is, the more likely it is that the final mine will be successful and profitable. Directional drilling may seem to be a minor part of exploration, but it is definitely one way to direct more profits to the bottom line |
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