Arriving in June, the Redbore 100 has the capacity to utilise 3.5 million pounds of thrust and up to 750,000 foot pounds of rotational torque. In the right conditions this much power enables it to drill an eight metre diameter raise up to a depth of 1000m.

Redpath Australia general manager of raise boring Allan Brady predicted the Redbore 100 will change the way Australian mines are designed.

“Instead of doing a raise in two passes companies can now pull it in one, minimising the costs associated with the multiple mobilisation and installation that other rigs require,” Brady said.

“This gives mining companies an unprecedented number of options in how they design and structure their mines which is very exciting for Australia.”

The Redbore 100’s design, standing at 7.54m in height and its ability to be broken down into smaller components, allows it to be moved underground for additional raises with smaller excavations required.

“We designed the Redbore 100 to make sure that it was not only the most powerful in the world, but one of the simplest to manage and manoeuvre,” Brady added.

“Other raise drill designs with smaller capacities can be 10.5 metres in height without the ability to come apart easily so underground drilling requires extensive excavation which is very costly and takes time.

“Its variable speed drive computer aided drilling system allows each drill rod to be torqued to the correct amount reducing over torque to the drill pipe. This can prevent the loss of expensive reaming heads while also allowing the Redbore 100 to run on a third of the power of smaller raise drills.”

Having completed the fourth largest raise hole ever undertaken around the globe in 2011 at the Westwood Project in Quebec Canada, the Redbore 100 is now being shipped to Perth. More than 50 shipping containers are required to carry the rig and its specially designed drill rods.

Redpath has already sent several personnel to North America for training on this specific drill by the Canadian team responsible for operating the rig for the past three years. The team, with a combined total of 100 years drilling experience, will be accompanying the drill to Australia in June.

“We are hitting Australia running with one of the most experienced raise drilling teams ever assembled on hand to ensure that any personnel using this machine are completely briefed and capable of running it safely,” Brady said.

“The Redbore 100 will be one of the first production raise drills in the world to utilise mounted cameras and diagnostic equipment that continually communicates with headquarters in real-time, so any operator working on a remote site here in Australia will never be alone.”