Business: Ausdrill

Ausdrill delivers geotechnical solutions at Koolan Island, enhancing seawall stability and ensuring safe operations in challenging coastal conditions.

Since 2021, Ausdrill has partnered with Mount Gibson Iron at Koolan Island to address seawall stability challenges. Employing innovative geotechnical techniques such as shotcreting, rockfall barrier removal, and rock anchor installation, Ausdrill ensures the structural integrity of the seawall. Operating in a coastal environment, the team adeptly manages environmental risks and difficult terrain to maintain safe and continuous operations.

Ausdrill provides tailored drilling and blasting at Gruyere to support safe, productive mining and long-term resource expansion.

Ausdrill supports the Gruyere Joint Venture, operated by Gold Fields and Gold Road Resources, with surface diamond drilling and drill and blast services. Operations are tailored to support both production and exploration, integrating safety-focused drilling solutions with efficient resource expansion. Ausdrill’s consistent delivery and deep site knowledge contribute to both short-term outcomes and long-term development opportunities.

In 2021 Ausdrill assisted to move the mine’s ore crusher to the Larego site. This includes works for a new crusher, feed line, and refinery (haul road construction, crusher circle, and facilities), as well as sensitive blasting around major power lines present on site that feed the largest towns throughout the SouthWest region. Ausdrill is providing a number of resourcing efficiencies at Larego by pooling resources and sharing its personnel across nearby mine sites. Our trusted team of locals, many of whom have worked in the area for almost 10 years, brings a proven and loyal foundation to our service provision.

In line with BHP’s technology roadmap, our exploration crew have utilised our semi-autonomous hands-free drilling equipment to increase safety and efficiency on site. We continue to provide consistent results via deep navigational diamond and RC drilling – increasing accuracy and cost savings.

Our exploration team has been expertly providing diamond drilling and P.C.D chipping drilling to a number of sites across the Bowen Basin. In line with BHP’s technology road map, we have provided semi-autonomous hands-free drilling capabilities, which have increased safety on site and lowered costs.

The Ausdrill team was met with the need to mobilise, facilitate the on-site construction of four new Caterpillar MD6250 drills, and seamlessly take over drilling just before the height of COVID-19. Our dedicated project lead worked hand-in-hand with our client, OEM, and each sector manager to ensure that the drill delivery plan was created and commissioned in a timely manner. Despite global challenges and record-breaking floods, our competent team met each key milestone, did not lose a single day of production, and achieved an excellent safety record.

Ausdrill has forged a successful partnership with BHP Iron Ore, delivering services to mines across the Pilbara region for over 12 years. Our team has brought a number of efficiencies to BHP mine sites, including: the use of Ausdrill-designed Rock Commander drills for specific contour drilling. The use of the Rock Commander has achieved an impressive increase in meters drilled, as well as size of hole drilled, as a result of the contoured slope the Rock Commander is able to work on.

Meanwhile, in line with BHP’s technology roadmap, our exploration crews have utilised our award-winning Ausdrill automated sampler and semi-autonomous hands-free drilling equipment to increase safety and efficiency on site.

The Tropicana Gold Mine project is located 330 km northeast of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Since 2002, it has been jointly owned by AngloGold Ashanti (70% – manager) and Independence Group (30%). The Tropicana tenements consist of 12,500 km2 of land. It is located at the junction of the Yilgarn Craton and the Fraser Range Mobile Belt.

The Tropicana deposit was discovered in 2005. The nearby Havana deposit was discovered in 2006. Mining commenced in July 2012 and first ore was sent to the crushing circuit in July 2013. The first gold was poured on 26 September 2013. The area has been seen as a new major Australian gold province, previously unexplored due to its remoteness, and dubbed the “Tropicana Gold Belt”.

Ausdrill has been delivering mining services at St Ives, on and off, over a 25 year period. In that time we have provided our specialised long-reach Rock Commander drill for probing and safer works around complex, unmapped historical underground workings; and navigated complex passes while backfilling previously mined stopes. As specialised lake drillers, our exploration team has consistently hit desired targets at Lake Lefroy. Meanwhile, our deep navigational diamond drilling capabilities have enabled significant cost savings.

Ausdrill have been providing mining services at Mungari for over 10 years. We have worked with our client to increase efficiencies around abrasive and hard ground with one-hole automatic drilling and high-precisions GPS functionality, as well as inhouse bit sharpening. We have also successfully managed excess water by carefully offsetting collar piping to preserve hole integrity; conducting depressurisation drilling; and practicing varied loading methods to offset shots.

At approx. 3.5 km long, 1.5 km wide and over 600 metres deep, the Superpit is one of Australia’s largest open cut gold mines. Ausdrill was awarded this drilling services contract in 1989 and has delivered over three decades of continuous operation.

In that time we have developed a genuine partnership with our client and a deep understanding of the site. The Ausdrill-designed Rock Commander (RC) 330 and RC 350 Longreach Drill – developed originally through tenure and experience at this very site – has transformed the safe and productive way our team works through the surface mining sequence. Designed around an excavator track base, these rigs enable greater reach and flexibility, providing a safe and highly efficient way to drill in a pit famous for large stopes and underground networks. At the height of the mining cycle 18 production and 3 RC rigs were achieving approximately 240,000 meters per month.

Huntly/ Myara mine is surrounded by developments, so sensitive drill and blast processes and tight QA/QC have been an essential service during Ausdrill’s 10+ year project delivery. We work with our client to monitor weather patterns and wind direction to control blast acoustics and mitigate any air over pressure issues; and adjusted our drilling diameters, depths and stemming to safely continue work when operating within 50m of major power lines and 20m of a main public road. Situated within a water catchment area, a wildlife breeding zone and flanked by dieback affected areas, the mine site has required tight environmental QA/QC and drainage control – both of which have been successfully provided for over a decade.