A proficient company must carry out drilling activities with due care and expertise in exploration drilling for oil and gas. They also help minimize the drilling work and related environmental damage by carrying out pre-drilling activities like geological surveys, site investigation, environmental assessment, etc. They also perform mineral inventory, prospect evaluations, land mapping, site restoration, site planning, construction, etc.
Exploration Drilling Companies
Drilling company carries out geophysical exploration drilling and mineral evaluation for various types of minerals like gold, iron ore, coal, limestone, aluminum oxide, titanium dioxide, water deposits, rock salts, limestone, and granite, etc. The process can be through manual techniques or automated drilling machines. In the manual technique, the geophysicists and engineers walk into the surface, analyze the sample and report back to the drilling company. The drilling company then decides if the sample is suitable for extraction through mechanical drilling or mineral acids.
Processing and Production
The mineral specimens excavated from the ground are sent to the mine or an ore processing plant for further processing and production. Some of these minerals do not require further processing and will sell on the spot at the mines. Many exploration drilling companies also use acid to break up the sample and send it to different refineries that process the minerals. Some exploration drilling companies also do acid drilling to extract oil and gas.
Machines and Drilling Rigs
Many exploration drilling companies also use high technology machines like robotic diggers and tilt drilling equipment. Rigs are used to explore boreholes. One of the most common equipment used by exploration drilling companies is the rock drillers. These devices are used for boring holes using earth magnets and high-powered rock electric beams. Some of them also have remote control features for controlling the depth of the hole.
Remotely Operated Vehicles
Some of these companies also use robotic vehicles, called remotely operated vehicles (ROV) or remotely operated vehicles (ROVER). They use these robots to access areas that have not been inspected yet. In some cases, such as with mud drill sample mining, core drilling, or high-grade ore prospecting, the robot is inserted inside the hole so that it can assess the sample’s quality. The equipment is attached to a computer, and all other relevant information about the area and the minerals it contains is recorded.
Selecting the Services
The type of drilling services offered depends on the project. The primary goal of any exploration drilling is to determine the deposit location and gather samples for further study. After the location and sample have been confirmed, the next step will be to drill into the area to determine the mineral composition and grade. It is not uncommon for companies to drill several holes to find out the most promising location. In many cases, a single hole will yield more valuable information than multiple holes.