Underground Drilling Rigs Overview

Tunnelling and Mining development

Making holes is part of our business.  HPE supplies drilling rigs to conventional underground mines for horizontal tunnel development, incline tunnel development, ore pass development, vertical ventilation holes, silos and the drilling of drain holes and reef extracting holes (reefboring).

Conventional underground mines in South Africa traditionally have narrow reef ore bodies, with a rail track infrastructure, use compressed air as an energy medium and drilling is by hand.

The HPE drilling rigs for horizontal development and incline tunnel development ensure faster drilling and have had a marked impact on safety due to the operator drilling from a safe and supported area.  Water from the drifters are circulated back to the high pressure pump ensuring a closed loop system (dry hydropower).

The HPE drilling rigs for ore pass development (up to 55 m), drilling of drain holes (up to 140 m) and reefboring (up to 30 m) use water operated DTH hammer technology.  Holes are drilled from the bottom up and the drilling rigs are small enough to drill from a 3 m x 3,5 m tunnel, thereby eliminating the need for increasing the excavation size.