6.

Drilling
Drilling is concerned with making a small diameter hole (usually less than 1 m and in mineral
exploration usually only a few centimeters) in a particular geological target, which may be
several hundred meters distant, to recover a representative sample. Among the available methods
auger, rotary, percussion, and diamond core drilling are the most important.

6.1.

Auger drilling

Augers are hand-held or truck-mounted drills, which have rods with spiral flights to bring soft
material to the surface. They are used particularly to sample placer deposits. Power augers are
particularly useful for deep sampling in easily penetrable material where pitting is not
practicable.

6.2.

Rotary drilling

Rotary drilling is a noncoring method and is unequalled for drilling through soft to medium hard
rocks such as limestone, chalk, or mudstone. A typical rotary bit is the tri-cone or roller rock bit
that is tipped with tungsten carbide insets. Rock chips are flushed to the surface by the drilling
fluid for examination and advances of up to 100 m per hour are possible.

6.3.

Percussion drilling

In percussion drilling, a hammer unit driven by compressed air imparts a series of short rapid
blows to the drill rods or bit and at the same time imparts a rotary motion. The drills vary in size
from small hand-held units (as used in road repair work) to large truck-mounted rigs capable of
drilling large diameter holes to several hundred meters depth. Percussion drilling is a rapid and
cheap method but suffers from the great disadvantage of not providing the precise location of
samples, as is the case in diamond drilling. However, costs are one third to one half of those for
diamond drilling and this technique has proved particularly useful in evaluating deposits which
present more of a sampling problem than a geological one, e.g. a porphyry copper.

6.4.

Diamond core drilling

The sample is cut from the target by a diamond-armoured or impregnated bit. This produces a
cylinder of rock that is recovered from the inner tube of a core barrel. The bit and core barrel are

connected to the surface by a continuous length (string) of steel or aluminum alloy rods, which
allow the bit plus core barrel to be lowered into the hole, and pulled to the surface. They also
transmit the rotary cutting motion to the diamond bit from the surface diesel power unit, and
appropriate pressure to its cutting edge.

Drill bits: Drill bits are classified as either impregnated or surface-set. The former

consist of fine-grained synthetic or industrial grade diamonds within a metallic cement while
the latter have individual diamonds, sized by their number per carat. In general, impregnated
bits are suitable for tough compact rocks such as chert, while surface-set varieties with large
individual diamonds are used for softer rocks such as limestone.

Core barrels: As the cylinder of rock (the core) is cut by the circular motion of

the drill bit it is forced up into the core barrel by the advancing drill rods. Core barrels are
classified by the length of core they contain. They are usually 1.53.0 m in length but can be
as long as 6 m. They are normally double-tube in the sense that in order to improve core
recovery an inner core barrel is independent of the motion of the drill rods and does not
rotate. Triple-tube barrels can be used in poor ground and for collecting undisturbed samples
for geotechnical analysis.

Circulating medium: Usually water is circulated down the inside of the drill rods,

washing over the cutting surface of the drill bit, and returning to surface through the narrow
space between the outside of the rods and the wall of the drillhole. The purpose of this action
is to lubricate the bit, cool it, and remove crushed and ground rock fragments from the bit
surface.

Casing: Cylindrical casing is used to seal the rock face of the hole. It provides a

steel tube in which the drill string can operate in safety and prevents loss of drill strings
caused by rock collapse and either loss or influx of water. Casing and drill bits are sized so
that the next lower size (i.e. smaller diameter) will pass through the larger size in which the
hole had been previously drilled.

Figure 1. Schematic diagram showing drill rig

equipments.

6.5.

1. Mud tank
2. Shale shaker
3. Suction line (mud pump)
4. Mud pump
5. Power source
6. Vibrating house
7. Draw-works
8. Standpipe
9. Kelly house
10. Goose-neck
11. Travelling block
12. Drill line
13. Crown block
14. Derrick
15. Monkey board
16. Stand (of drill pipe)
17. Pipe rake (floor)
18. Swivel
19. Kelly drive
20. Rotary table
21. Drill floor
22. Bell nipple
23. Blowout preventer
24. Blowout preventer
25. Drill string (core barrel)
26. Drill bit
27. Casing head
28. Flow line

Logging of drillhole samples

Information from drillholes comes from the following main sources: rock, core, or chips; downthe-hole geophysical equipment; instruments inside the hole; and performance of the drilling
machinery. Effective core recovery is essential that is, the length or volume (weight) of sample
recovered divided by the length or volume (weight) drilled expressed as a percentage. If recovery
is less than 8590% the value of the core is doubtful as mineralized and altered rock zones are
frequently most friable and the first to be ground away and lost during drilling.
Often, initial, rapid core logging is done at the drill site. This information is used to decide
whether the hole is to be either continued or abandoned. Once the initial logging at a drill site is

complete, the core is moved to a field base, where a more detailed examination of the core takes
place at a later date. Nevertheless, the main structural features should be recorded (fracture
spacing and orientation) and a lithological description (color, texture, mineralogy, rock
alteration, and rock name) with other details such as core recovery and the location of excessive
core loss (when say >5%). The description should be systematic and as quantitative as possible;
qualitative descriptions should be avoided. These data are plotted on graphical core logs (Figure
2) and used as an aid in interpreting the geology of the current and next holes to be drilled.

Figure 2. Typical intersection of a tin-bearing vein showing sampling intervals and the
uncertainty introduced by incomplete core recovery.

Choose the best choice:

1. What is not the aim of drilling?
A. Making a blast hole

B. Extracting ore body

C. Geophysical sampling

D. Geochemical sampling

2. drilling can be drilled manually.

A. Auger

B. Rotary

C. Percussion

D. Diamond core

3. drilling is a coring method.

A. Auger

B. Rotary

C. Percussion

D. Diamond core

4. drilling is a great method for drilling through soft to medium hard rocks.
A. Auger

B. Rotary

C. Percussion

D. Diamond core

5. A hammer unit impart percussion and rotary motion in percussion drilling.

A. Big

B. Heavy

C. Hydraulic

D. Pneumatic

6. What is the advantage of percussion drilling?

A. Providing the precise location of samples

B. Providing core samples

C. Being a cost-effective method

D. Being a hand-held method

7. Which case is not the role of drilling rods?

A. Connecting drill bit to the surface

B. Generating rotary motion

C. Connecting core barrel to the surface

D. Transferring and circulating mud

8. Which case is not the role of drilling mud (water)?

A. Washing the core sample

B. Lubricating the bit

C. Transferring rock chips

D. Cooling the bit

9. If recovery of core sample is less than 8590% the value of the core is doubtful as:
A. Mineralized zone

B. Altered zone

C. Cemented zone

D. Fractured zone

10. Information from is used to decide whether the hole is to be either continued or
abandoned.
A. Core logging

B. Geophysical logging

C. Geochemical sampling

D. Drilling chips logging

Close test (Blast holes)

In an open pit operation a rotary drill is used to drill holes that are ~30cm in 1 and ~15m
deep. The holes are commonly filled with ANFO (short for ammonium nitrate fuel oil)
explosives. The 2 drill hole location and spacing and location depends on the type of
rock mined and overall mine plan. The depth of the hole will determine the height of the bench
in the pit, generally 1213m. Explosives in the drill hole are detonated, 3 the rock into
smaller pieces that can be transported for further processing. There is also a pattern to the
detonation times of the explosives in each blast hole. Typically the detonation times of the
explosives in two adjacent 4 differ by a few milliseconds (called a delay time) so that the
blast proceeds in a particular 5 within the blast pattern to avoid blasting too much rock.
Depending on the size of the mine, availability of equipment, and capacity of the mill, blasting
may be scheduled every day or every 23 days.
1. A. Length

B. Wide

C. Diameter

2. A. Explosive B. Blast pattern

D. Height

C. Hole location

D. ANFO

3. A. Breaking up

B. Fracturing

C. Powdering

D. Milling

4. A. Blast pattern

B. Explosive

C. Blast hole

D. Bench

5. A. Blast hole

B. Hole location

C. Blast pattern

D. Direction

Technical words:
Abounded
Altered rock
Armoured
Auger drilling
Bell nipple
Bench
Bit
Blast hole
Blast pattern
Blow
Blowout

Inner tube
Kelly house

) (

Logging
) ( Lubricate

Mill
Mine plan

- Monkey board
Mud pump
Mud tank
- Noncoring method
- Open pit

()

 Penetrable
Percussion drilling

Capacity
Carat

) (Pipe rake
- Pitting

Casing
Circulating

Placer deposits
Power auger

Core barrel
Core recovery

Representative sample
Rig

Crown block
Cutting edge

Rock chip
Rock fragment

Delay time
Derrick

- Rod
Rotary drilling

Detonate
Diamond drilling
Diesel power
Distant
Double-tubed
Draw-works
Drill string
Drilling
Explosive
Flushed

Seal
Shale shaker

Spiral flight
Stand

Standpipe
- Suction line

Surface-set
Swivel

) (

) (

- Tipped
Tough

Friable
Goose-neck

Triple-tubed
Truck-mounted

Hammer
Hand-held

- undisturbed
- unequalled

Hole
Impregnated

- Vibrating house

Influx

Answer sheet:
1
B
1
C

2
A
2
B

3
D
3
A

4
B
4
C

5
D
5
D

6
C

7
B

8
A

9
C

10
A