Boart Longyear's Eastern Australian Territory team set the new depth mark last June 17 with a LS600T sonic rig and using a 4.75-inch conventional coring system and overriding with 6-inch casing. The bore hole was drilled at Nhill, 374Km (223 miles) northwest of Melbourne.

Mining Magazine readers voted the project as the winner of the 2014 Mining Magazine surface mining (soft rock) award, which will be presented during the 2015 SME Annual Conference & Expo and CMA 117th National Western Mining Conference, to be held in Denver in February. The Mining Magazine awards are given annually to celebrate outstanding new technologies, innovations and initiatives within the mining sector.

"We are very pleased that Mining Magazine and our peers in the industry recognize the tremendous accomplishment of our team," said Alan Sides, Senior Vice President of Drilling Services for Boart Longyear. "Even more importantly, our crew's efforts reflect Boart Longyear's continual pursuit of innovations to meet the challenges of the market."

Boart Longyear is at the forefront of deep-hole sonic drilling, which allows for continuous, undisturbed and high-quality core samples, minimal environmental impact and reduced waste by up to 80 percent relative to conventional methods.

Its client at the Nhill site is a joint collaboration between Deep Exploration Technologies Cooperative Research Centre (DET CRC), Geoscience Australia and the Geological Survey of Victoria. DET CRC is an Australian government-funded research organization dedicated to delivering more successful, cost-effective, safer and more environmentally friendly ways to drill, analyze and target deep mineral deposits.

The previous Australian depth record for this sonic drill, also set by Boart Longyear, was 206.00m, which was accomplished using the same drilling method at Menindee near Broken Hill in New South Wales.

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