Two Western Australian companies are at the forefront of a $3.9 million high-tech export project, which will involve flying three electronic drill rigs to West Africa in an Antonov AN-124 Ruslan aircraft.
Two Western Australian companies are at the forefront of a $3.9 million high-tech export project, which will involve flying three electronic drill rigs to West Africa in an Antonov AN-124 Ruslan aircraft.
West Perth-based drilling contractor SBD Drilling Pty Ltd has ordered three Explorac 220RC drilling rigs, at a cost of $1.3 million each, from global mining equipment supplier, Atlas Copco Australia Pty Ltd.
Each rig will be assembled in Perth by Canning Vale-based reverse circulation drilling specialists, Metzke Engineering Pty Ltd, using components sourced by Atlas Copco from within Australia and overseas.
SBD’s client, Rio Tinto Iron Ore, will use the rigs on the Simandou project in Guinea, West Africa.
The first of the three rigs, which are used to take bulk samples for pre-feasibility and exploration work, was flown to the Rio Tinto site earlier this week.
A second rig is to be sent across in October or November, with the third to be delivered later this year or early in 2008.
Atlas Copco Australia business line manager for exploration products, Dave Brooker, said the Explorac rig, which is able to be operated by remote control using a single cable, was attracting significant interest from drilling contractors.
“We have a number of orders on our books for these machines,” he said.
“They use very modern technology, with computer-controlled systems, and the ergonomics and safety levels are the best on the market.”
Mr Brooker said he expected sales of the rig in Australia and overseas to grow over the next few years.
“I would say Australia is at the forefront of reverse circulation drilling,” he said.
“We would certainly expect to see significantly more in the marketplace in the next couple of years. We would look at doubling our output.”
Mr Brooker said the company was hoping to expand its operations in the near future.
“The sales are like anything – it takes a while to get off the ground and the more rigs you have out there, the more interest you generate,” he said.
Metzke director and co-owner Julian Burt said although reverse circulation drilling had some issues with sample contamination, the process was cheaper than diamond core drilling and was gaining appeal in the marketplace.
Metzke, which provided the intellectual property for the Explorac project and sold its original design to Atlas Copco, is one of two assembly plants worldwide that manufactures the Explorac rigs. The other assembly plant, based in Sweden, services Atlas Copco’s clients in Europe and Africa.
Mr Burt said the rig was a good example of an Australian design finding success internationally.
“It’s not often an Australian company tells a Swede how to design something,” he said.
Mr Burt said the company had built five rigs for Atlas Copco before this latest project, and was expecting to build another 12 next year.
He said demand for the company’s products was strong.
“We’ve been asked to look at a number of projects, but we’re a small-to-medium operation and we don’t have the resources,” he said.
Rio Tinto’s Simandou project in Guinea is a high grade iron ore resource, which was approved for mining in April last year.
The company has been exploring the site for the past 10 years and is currently conducting a pre-feasibility study into mining and transport options.
Rio Tinto said its preference was to build a new port on the south coast of Guinea.
