The World’s most powerful, proven raise bore package starts work in Australia

The world's most powerful raise drill package ever assembled has been placed on site to commence work on its first job in Australia. The rig and auxillary equipment required the largest ever mobilisation of raise bore equipment across the country.

The Redbore 100, designed by mining contractor Redpath, has been contracted to work on a large, underground mine in South Australia, and needed the use of 60 trailers and the closure of the Great Eastern Highway to transport it there from Perth.

“It took quite in depth consultation with both the WA Main Roads Department and Western Power, because the Redbore 100 took up the whole road,” says Redpath’s General Manager of Raiseboring, Allan Brady. “It’s not every day a major highway has to be closed- it was a mammoth operation by all involved.”  

The Redbore 100 features the latest drill rod technology, and is capable of 3.5 million pounds of thrust and up to 750,000 foot pounds of rotational torque. In the right conditions this much power enables it to drill an eight metre diameter raise and up to a depth of 1000 metres, more than any other tested raise drill on the planet.

The raise drill also utilises mounted cameras and diagnostic equipment that continually monitor the drill’s performance. A raisebore technician in Canada can view the complete diagnostics from anywhere in the world via the internet

“This remote monitoring feature of the Redbore 100 is a great addition which removes the need to fly additional technicians to the mine sites in remote locations,” says Mr Brady.

“Instead, the performance and functioning of the drill can be viewed in real time from any device around the world, it allows the Canadian specialists to  diagnose any issues, and also assist technicians on site should a problem occur,” Mr Brady says.

While the Redbore 100 is the proven most powerful raise drill, it actually operates on a third of the power of smaller raise drills. Its variable speed drive computer-aided drilling system allows each drill rod to be torqued to the correct amount, reducing over torque to the drill pipe and preventing the loss of expensive reaming heads.

The Redbore 100 was shipped to Australia in September last year, using more than 50 shipping containers to carry the rig and its specially designed drill rods from Canada.

Media Enquiries
Kate Shuttleworth at Graymedia on 07 3250 9402 or 0418 723 841 or email k.shuttleworth@graymedia.com.au