Welcome!

This blogspot will give you a fair idea of what I did during the training period that I enjoyed in the US. The idea behind the training was for me to get to know drilling methods and equipment, so that I can actually say something useful about these in my job as product support engineer.
It worked out really well, and despite long hours there was some time for seeing the sights as well. Ah, well, just look at the pictures, read the comments and see for your self.

The site works as follows: At the top are the newest pictures and as you scroll down you get to the older ones. Older posts can be found via the Archive links at the right of the page. If you'd like to view the posts in chronological order, start with the oldest archive and at the bottom of the page, and work your way up.

Enjoy!

Floris.

Every now and then it is good to feel you chose the right study.... Impressive stuff eh!

The trucks drive only to this point: the entrance to an obsolete railway tunnel, now in use for conveyor belts to the Salt Lake City Valley where the concentrator plant is.

Bad timing of some truck drivers to all decide at once they want to be loaded by the shovel

That white speck is the other Boart Longyear rig that currently works at the mine

Those penny-looking glasses give an extra 8-fold zoom...

Up to 4 Boart Longyear / Lang rigs work in the mine. Here the one where Joey spent the last week, doing coring work.

Where you see the green water is the bottom.

The day after Joey and I decided to go up to the Kinnacott Visitor's center to get a good look at the mine: the greatest hole ever dug with 4km wide and 1.2 km deep. Metal of interest is mainly Copper but also Gold and others.

I know, I know... should have spent the night here...

The road over which I drove in the day before lies om the river bank below... It all is rather big again.

Nick flying down

I flipped the bike only once... no scratches on it though. However on me a couple

Mom, dad: I was not really considering doing it...

Behind me Castle Valley and Castle Rock. In this area many Hollywood films have been shot.

Stunning views and dropoffs

With the Biking Brothers on top of the Porcupine Ridge, one of the most famous biking trails around

In the shuttle bus that helped me part of the way up I met two other mountainbikers, Erik and Nick. With them I rode first an hour up, then 3 hours and 20km (!!) down. Here the struggle up

This would be my toy for the next 4 hours, although the fact that it was $3500, 2 weeks old and uninsured besides my signed blanco credit card slip did mean I should be a bit careful

Castle Rock (left one). On the cliff on the horizon (behind it) I did some bicicling the day after

After our crew was being rotated (they work 2 weeks and have 1 week off) and I phoned the office to find out what the plans were for the next day, where I was supposed to go to Kinnacott mine next to Salt Lake City. Bob Johnson (Coordinator and Safety Supervisor) however told me he could not get it set up anymore for me for only one or two days, so I had to take the day off. Altough I really would have liked to spend those days at the biggest man-made excavation on earth (a hole in the mountains of 1.2km deep and 4km wide, see later picures), the mountain bike Mekka of the world lay exactly en route home. The dicision to spend the night in Moab, Utah was quickly made. On the way over there the sandstone cliff landscape became more and more impressive

And home-made fuel skidders that have a rather blunt road going qualities

Again heaps of toys to play with like winchtrucks, backhoe and cranes

Big stuff: Things made from centimeters thick steel still brake like made from chewing gum

My shift was from 12 noon to 12 at night (plus 1 hour to do checks and inform the crosshift about what is going on, plus 1,5 hr driving...). Althoug during the day it was mostly about 20-25 degrees, at night it snowed every now and then! IN JUNE!! Weird country.

After setting and cementing the casing (threaded pipe) in the hole this valve is placed on top. Hole finished.

Think I am ready for that bank vault now

Working on my torch cutting skills: cutting holes in the bottom casing pipe so that the cement can be pumped out of the casing in case the special (drillable) cement valve at the bottom does not work.

A clevis as thick as my wrist...

All this heavy stuff needs to be pre-torqued to very high values. That is done by pulling hydraulically on these "thongs" with tons of force. Got to mind your fingers when playing with these things, the thongs alone weigh about 200kg.

In the hole, the mud motor is located right above the bit. Due to the bend in the housing, the bit will not cut straight but in the direction of the bend. This means that if you do not rotate the drillstring while drilling you go in a certain direction. If on the other hand you do rotate the drillstring slowly you go straight.

These "flexible collars" go in next and provide the weight on the bit. The drill string is kept in tension while drilling! The stainless steel collar on the left is required when the direction is checked with a compass (every 4 rods when I was there) and costs about 10.000 dollar... The divice that is lowered into the drillstring (called "camera") measures magnetic north and inclination. By plotting these as the hole progresses you have an accurate idea where the bit is.

...Along with the tricone that is screwed onto it

After drilling straight (at an angle of 19 degrees) for some time the directional mud motor goes in to direct the hole to the right spot in the coal seams.

Drilling mud with a foaming agent is injected into the air that is pumped down. The resulting foam is better at carrying the cutting up the hole. It's the helper's (=my) task to mix it all up.

The Down The Hole Hammer is ready to go down the hole... This method uses (you'd never guess) an air-driven hammer that sits right behind the bit. This way no energy is lost in the drillrods. If the method can be used (for instance not when there is a lot of formation water flowing into the hole) it generally is the fastest way of drilling through competent rock.

With this cyclone the cuttings are separated from the foam and air. Every now and than the foam gets a bit enthausiastic and overflows the pit,. You then spray it with de-foamer which does not help anything and let it overflow...

Next step is to cement the casing in, using 1 m3 of cement

Then you place the surface casing, in this case two pipes, that are welded together.

Each hole starts with drilling about 15m with this big tricone (abbout 60 cm diameter, compare with the 4 liter water jug)

After travveling this road for 40 minutes you are back in town...

Wildernis areas in Colorado tend to be very pretty.

The site from above

Back to work!

The last two weeks before my visa ran out I spent drilling in Paonia, Colorado, where Joey had spent two weeks working during my holiday.
The purpose of drilling is to pump methane gas out of multiple coal seams at 500-600m depth to reduce compulsory mine shutdowns (air-methane mixtures are explosive at 5 percent methane) at the time of mining it.
By using angle holes, multiple coal seam locations can be reached from one drill site, kind of handy in an (offical!) wilderness area where every road needs to be cut with a dozer.
Method of drilling was directional (mud motor with tricone bit) and DTH (down the hole hammer) for the straight parts.

But fellow-offroaders with giant cars were close this time, saving me an hour of digging snow.

In the mountains in front of Salt Lake City I got stuck for the first time! After driving all day I was too lazy to explore the snow trail and the front right wheel sunk into a hole of 60 cm deep... (bottom left on picture). that was enough to get the car on its belly

Short break on the 12 hr trip to Salt Lake (for me, not for the car)

And some windsurfers around the corner! Nice wind, no waves though. I was envious enough as it was

Lighthouse at the point: battered but beautiful

These guys apparently like this spot as well