The drilling team at our Boddington operation in the South West achieved a site record in September, delivering almost 3,000m in a 24 hour period.
This was achieved by all rigs on site drilling in one location at Southwest 11 pit, favourable drilling conditions due to the flat terrain and consistency of the overlaying cap rock and a rig availability of over 96%.
Thanks to our client, South 32, the drill area had been well prepared with very little exposure to the typical pea gravel pockets sometimes encountered in the region.
With the addition of a good dose of healthy competition between the three day shift teams, operating Montabert’s and GD5000’s, we were set for a great day of drilling.
Across 24 hours (three day shifts and one night shift), the crew beat the previous record of 2,882 metres, set almost exactly five years earlier on 21 September 2016.
Long running project, long standing team
With a project start date of 2013, Boddington is one of our longest running projects and it is our longest drill and blast contract.
Our 14-strong team has benefited from the stable project management of Luke Clarke and Ryan Mosedale.
Luke first started with JSW in October 2013 at Boddington as a driller, before being promoted to supervisor and then project manager in 2016.
Ryan started with JSW in 2015 as a fitter at Carina Iron Ore before being transferred to Boddington where he was promoted to project manager in 2018.