posted by the Epiroc Exploration & OreBody Solutions team
November 6, 2018
It’s kind of inevitable that, like death and taxes, you will have to deal with borehole deviation at some point in your drilling career. Bore holes are rarely straight and the further down you go, the more likely the chance of your hole going off the chosen trajectory. This can be quite a problem if the geologist needs to hit a particular ore body. And the fact of the matter is that many of the ore deposits near the surface have already been depleted so you need to drill deeper.
Of course, the best thing is to do everything possible to prevent bore hole deviation. That means making sure your drill rig is set up properly, verifying your ground conditions, and stabilizing your core barrel. Unfortunately, even if you do everything possible, deviation may still occur.
What’s a driller to do? Well, the good news is that there are several options available on the market. The bad news is that choosing the right one can be difficult. The choice will depend on several things, including driller experience and budget.
Bore hole deviation is probably one of the most common issues our technical team is asked about. We have published many guides on a variety of issues common to the diamond drilling industry, including deep hole drilling and how to improve your rate of penetration - bore hole deviation is the topic of our latest free guide. The guide will cover the causes of bore hole deviation, how to prevent it and how to correct it, including an overview of many of the products available.
Our goal has always been to improve drilling performance and make drillers’ lives easier and to accelerate the transformation of our industry. We think our latest guide will help accomplish that for our drilling community. Of course, our technical team is also available for advice and guidance on any drilling issues.
