Drilling Exploration

Assessing realistic resource quantity & quality.

Drilling services help our clients deal with assessment of realistic quality resources which is key to judge project feasibility. Diamond Core & Down The Hole (DTH) drilling are more commonly engaged. Auger & Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling are engaged under special conditions.

Mineral resources hidden underneath the earth’s surface needs to be assessed for available quality & quantity. While geological assessment is restricted to the near surface occurrences, geophysics would only be indicative as no physical sampling is involved. Drilling exploration assists in assessing the actual conditions of quality & quantity of the material available in the sub-surface. While quality aspects guide on the grade of material available down the depth of the resources, quantity of resources aids at decision making on potential to exploit the resource. For rapid movement of equipment with a super-light setup, Capstone prefers portable drilling machine rigs although deep probing requires sturdy & bulky drilling machines.

Capstone has experience of drilling related exploration services in many regions, including Mauritania for Iron Ore & Gold, Greenstone belts of Zimbabwe, Gold & Silver laden granodiorites in Cambodia and a host of projects in India for Iron Ore, Limestone, Manganese, Industrial Minerals and Dimensional stone. Besides, drilling activities, Capstone also engages in allied services of drill hole collar mapping using DGPS/Total Stations, logging, core splitting and core sampling following Standard Operating Procedures.

Capstone engages different types of drilling equipment for different mineral commodities & geological setting. In most cases, drilling assessment are done using Diamond Core Drilling Machines, preferably in NQ size & sometimes in BQ & AQ sizes. For assessment of mineral resources (unlike Coal & Oil Industry), drilling rigs with moderate depth penetration capacity of 100 to 200 meters are preferred. Capstone engages pneumatic drilling machines with wireline setup, that can comfortably drill to the required depth of sample recovery.

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