HEAD OFFICE
64 Great Eastern Highway
(Cnr Koojan Road)
South Guildford, WA 6055
P: (08) 9277 8800
F: (08) 9277 8844
E: info@swickmining.com.au

POSTAL ADDRESS
P.O. Box 74
Guildford, WA, 6935

Undergound Longhole

Swick Mining Services provides underground longhole drilling services to the Australian mining industry through a fleet of Tamrock 1020 solo top head hammer rigs.
In addition, Swick Mining Services has developed a new water hammer drilling system for underground longhole drilling.  Standard rigs use a top head hammer drilling system, applying percussive force on the top of a drill string and transferring energy through this string to the drill bit.  This configuration results in loss of energy as the drill string lengthens, reducing accuracy and penetration rates as the hole deepens.  Consequently, shorter holes of around 30m are drilled to ensure accuracy, restricting rig efficiency and necessitating intensive development access.
The new water hammer drilling system developed by Swick Mining Services integrates groundbreaking new drilling technology developed in Sweden onto our standard range of underground longhole drill rigs.  The water hammer system uses low volume, high pressure water to drive a reciprocating downhole piston that in turn strikes the drill bit.  This method of drilling allows for constant, high penetration rates over the hole depth, as well as very little hole deviation, a significant advantage over  conventional rigs.  The potential for this rig to alleviate many accuracy related issues in mine drilling, combined with its major safety benefits over standard in the hole hammer rigs, offers many solutions to existing mine problems.

The Spec Sheet for the Company’s underground longhole rigs can be downloaded here.