A drilling program was conducted in 2010, to establish relief points in the eastern wall of pit A, this was to aid the pressure build-up against this eastern wall due to a very large body of water at 80 mts. Dallas Sheppard focussed all efforts as Senior Supervisor to ensure this program was carried out within budget and required contract obligations for Rio Tinto. In conjunction with management in Perth Western Australia.

 

Once the complete crew arrived at the site, all were put through a series of OH & SE training, to help understand the complex dangers attached to this project.

 

To enable any drilling to be done, a series of monitoring seismic stations were implemented to monitor any movement in the face. As this was going to be a horizontal drilling exercise to accomplish this, the danger was extreme at all times.

 

The SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) that was put into place meant that drilling operations were limited to approximately 6-8 hours a day, in daylight hours. Due to safety protocols when blasting was being carried out. There was slow progress achieving the end result, there were 9 holes drilled into the face at 100 mts down at a horizontal depth of 40 mts.

 

The drilling program was carried out successfully, with no issues of safety. No lost time hours. Completed over a six week period.