New Boart Longyear facility opens in Adelaide

Boart Longyear’s new Asia-Pacific headquarters at Burbridge Business Park, Adelaide Airport in Australia is now fully operational. The facility provides a specialist centre for the overhaul of drill rigs for mineral exploration applications.

The first reconditioned rig, a UDR 1000 has left the facility’s workshop and is en-route to BHP Billiton’s Nickel West exploration drilling site in Leinster, Western Australia.
The new facility is a Centre of Excellence for large surface and underground drill rig design and development and employs more than 40 engineers. A Deep-hole Exploration Technology Cooperative Research Centre is also based on site, which includes a 5,351m2 workshop and a 1,975m2 office.

Boart Longyear’s vice president for Asia-Pacific, Kent Hoots noted that the new facility consolidates the company’s two previous Adelaide locations at Mitchell Park and Lonsdale.

“Our new regional headquarters includes a workshop facility which will serve as a main overhaul/repair centre for Boart Longyear’s Asia Pacific rig fleet,” he said. “The new facility features a prototype engineering and R&D centre for large surface and underground mineral exploration drill rigs.

“The site includes an overhaul and refurbishment service centre for third party clients as well as a state-of-the-art testing facility for both surface and underground drill rigs,” added Mr Hoots.