A project in Senegal resulted in a significant increase in productivity, accuracy and time saving. Using the latest in rig alignment and downhole surveying technology, the tools combined with the award winning cloud-based IMDEXHUB-IQ™ defined a new process for onsite real-time data collection and interpretation.
Randgold Resources were involved in a drilling campaign in Senegal, Africa, where they were drilling through highly magnetic intrusive rocks and compounded by inconsistent drill rig alignment, lengthy rig set-up times and unreliable or inaccurate survey data.
Randgold was facing challenges with the inaccuracy and reliability of their downhole survey data. The traditional rig alignment by compass method was impossible to do in the time required, and due to the +/-20 accuracy of a compass needle was not providing accurate enough results.
Randgold required reliable and consistent drill rig alignment, especially for the 15m x 10m Reverse Circulation (RC) drill spacing, and accurate downhole survey results for resource modelling.
Results
- Reduced rig alignment time by 50%
- 10 times the accuracy of rig alignment over traditional methods
- Drilling time was reduced by enabling critical real-time decision making by the geologist on where to move the rig
- Increased integrity of data through the QA/QC of IMDEXHUB-IQ™
- Increased data accuracy from REFLEX EZ-GYRO™ results.