Redpath’s Redbore 100 was shipped to Australia in September from Canada, with more than 50 shipping containers required to carry the rig and its specially designed drill rods.

It arrived in Perth but was contracted to an unnamed large underground mine in South Australia, requiring a massive transport operation using 60 trailers and involving the closure of Great Eastern Highway.

“It took quite in-depth consultation with both the WA Main Roads Department and Western Power, because the Redbore 100 took up the whole road,” Redpath raiseboring general manager Allan Brady said.

“It’s not every day a major highway has to be closed – it was a mammoth operation by all involved.”

The Redbore 100 can apply 3.5 million pounds of thrust and up to 750,000 foot pounds of rotational torque and, in the right conditions, can drill an 8m-diameter raise up to a depth of 1000m, more than any other tested raise drill in the world.

The drill uses mounted cameras and diagnostic equipment that monitor its performance, with a raisebore technician in Canada able to view the diagnostics.

“This remote monitoring feature of the Redbore 100 is a great addition which removes the need to fly additional technicians to the minesites in remote locations,” Brady said.

“Instead, the performance and functioning of the drill can be viewed in real time from any device around the world, it allows the Canadian specialists to diagnose any issues and also assist technicians onsite should a problem occur.”

The Redbore 100 uses only a third of the power of smaller raise drills, with its variable speed drive computer-aided drilling system allowing each rod to be torqued to the correct amount.