Technology and innovation
Drilling up a storm
The delivery of three Epiroc FlexiROC
D65 surface drill rigs has bolstered
Northern Cape company Booysen
Bore Drilling’s total machine fleet
significantly. According to Pieter Malan,
general manager at Booysen Bore
Drilling, the company now operates a
fleet of 51 machines.
Malan says the company purchased
their first FlexiROC D65s in 2013.
“This machine has now drilled in more
than 500 000 300mm-diameter holes in
the Northern Cape,” says Malan. Their
fleet also includes a SmartROC D65 for
blast-hole drilling, as well as a few CS14
and CS1500 core drilling machines.
Epiroc evolved from the global split
in January 2018 of Atlas Copco into two
separate companies and comprises the
Mining & Rock Excavation Technique
business area and the Construction
Tools division to focus on the mining
and civil engineering sectors. The
industrial businesses remain with Atlas
Copco. Epiroc business line manager:
Surface & Exploration Drilling (SED),
Hedley Birnie, explains how the business
partnership with Booysen Bore started:
“In 1999, SED area sales manager
for Atlas Copco, Cobus Engelbrecht,
conducted the very first trial with
a ROC L8 MK I test machine for
Booysen Bore at Beeshoek manganese
mine. The machine was the first drill rig
capable of drilling at an angle, making it
ideally suited for block drilling. Booysen
Bore was so impressed with the ROC
L8’s performance that they decided to
keep the machine for blast-hole drilling
on the mine and to systematically
[38] MINING MIRROR JUNE 2018
replace all their non-Atlas Copco drill
rigs at the end of their life cycle with
ROC L8s.”
When founded in 1977 by Hennie
Booysen, Booysen Bore focused mainly
on exploration drilling. In 1990, the
family business expanded its services
to blast-hole drilling and continued to
grow into the successful business and
major role player in the Northern Cape’s
mining environment that it is today.
Part of the Mogs (Mineral, Oil & Gas
Services) Group, Booysen Bore’s offering
includes down-the-hole (DTH),
percussion, exploration, and core
drilling, as well as in-pit de-watering
drilling services. Operating with a staff
of 430 from the Kuruman head office,
supported by an office in Beeshoek
under the auspices of Hennie’s son Hein
as general manager and a facility in
Kathu, the company is active mainly in
the province’s iron ore and manganese
mines, but also holds a sizable market
share in the supply of drilling services to
solar facilities in the region. Thirty-eight
out of the total of 51 ROC L8, D60 and
D65 machines are currently in operation.
The Northern Cape area presents
some of the most challenging conditions
in the world. “We drill into some of
the hardest rock in the world, with
compressive strengths above 500MPa
under extreme surface and weather
conditions; these drilling machines take
a huge hammering. “The Epiroc drill rigs
give us up to 80% availability over many
years of operation, and the machines
lasts for more than 30 000 hours plus. In
addition, the ROC boasts the lowest fuel
A solid long-term business partnership. From left: Cobus Engelbrecht (Epiroc), Pieter
Malan (Booysen Bore), Hein Booysen (Booysen Bore), and Hedley Birnie (Epiroc).
Booysen Bore Drilling maintains their fleet from
the well-equipped workshop at the Kuruman
head office.
consumption per drilled meter compared
to all other machines used by Booysen
Bore in the blast-hole environment.
So, as far as we are concerned, when
it comes to technology, reliability, ease
of operation, manoeuvrability, and fuel
efficiency, the ROC machines are in a
class of their own,” says Malan.