State Forest – Monitoring Bore Program
J&S Drilling has successfully delivered another monitoring bore program. For their valued Tier 1 client in Dwellingup State Forest, Western Australia. Despite the program starting in the wet season, the J&S Drilling team managed their time effectively. Prioritised drill locations based on the access after heavy rain events.
The scope of works called for 14x deep monitoring bores and 17x shallow monitoring bores for potential mine expansion. Due to access constraints, not all bore sites could be accessed. Therefore, these are planned to be completed in the dry season. The scope of works required all bores to be drilled and installed by class 2 licenced drillers. J&S Drilling employs several, skilled and well experienced class 2 drillers, who delivered the program incident free. In addition to the Class 2 licenced driller requirement, our client requested our drillers on site to hold Section 26 Supervisor competencies. J&S Drilling have several drillers with the S26 competency, who were assigned to the project to align with the scope requirements.
Rotary air drilling method
Rotary air was selected as the primary drilling method. To identify different aquifers and water strikes, which allowed the hydrogeologists to design the monitoring bores to suit the geology. Challenging ground conditions were encountered in certain areas of the program. However, J&S Drilling mobilised with an assortment of steel casing and mud rotary tooling to site to alleviate any delays. In areas where un-consolidated sand and gravels were encountered, the J&S Drilling team promptly changed from rotary air techniques to rotary mud techniques. Which proved successful on all boreholes. The pre-project preparation was vital to delivering the program on schedule.
Dieback
To prevent the spread of dieback, strict weed and seed protocols were in place for the duration of the project. The J&S Drilling team ensured that equipment was washed down between drill sites to prevent the spread of dieback and uphold relationships with local landholders in the area. Interactions with landholders were frequent and J&S Drilling team ensured their communication was transparent to continue a positive relationship.
J&S Drilling utilised a multipurpose Edson 3000G drill rig, mounted on an 4×4 carrier to deliver the monitoring bore program. In addition, J&S Drilling opted to fit a sullair 350psi/ 1150cfm air compressor to one of their 4×4 Hino support trucks, for ease of access in challenging terrain. Furthermore, a Small Water/ Fuel truck was used to deliver fuel and water to the drilling operation. J&S Drilling build all truck trays in-house which gives us the advantage to change configurations to suit project specific requirements.
In Conclusion, the successful project execution strengthened the relationship between J&S Drilling and our client, which has subsequently increased opportunity to deliver future projects.
