PRESS RELEASE: The celebration ceremony was held at the Terratec's workshop in Tasmania, Australia.

This machine will be deployed by Peruvian mining contractor INCIMMET at Continental Gold's flagship Buriticá mine development project in Colombia.

Located approximately two-hours northwest of Medellin, Colombia's second largest city, the Buriticá project is one of the world's biggest undeveloped high-grade gold projects, encompassing an area of 74,164ha in the Antioquia Department. It is Colombia's first modern underground mine and was designated as a Project of National Strategic Interest (PINES) by the Colombian government in November 2015.

After extensive research and analysis, INCIMMET selected Terratec to be the raise boring machine provider to support its operations. The contractor stated that it selected Terratec as its products deliver the best overall quality, technology specifications, competitive pricing, financing and delivery time to market.

Manufactured at Terratec's workshop in Tasmania, the TR2000 raise boring machine is a highly robust piece of equipment, designed for ease of operation and maintenance, providing a high level of reliability.

The unit it is designed to ‘comfortably' execute raises of up to 500m at 2.4m diameter and a larger ones of  4.1m diameter (of shorter depths).

It has a maximum pilot drilling torque of 42,000Nm, reaming torque of up to 209,000Nm and breakout to 236,000Nm. The maximum down thrust force is 665kN with up thrust being 4,150kN. The total installed power on the machine is 360kW.

At the end of last year, Terratec marked the opening of a new office in Lima, Peru, to support its continued growth in the Central and South American RBM market. The new office is focused on new machine sales, as well as the ongoing servicing and maintenance of a number of existing units working throughout the region.

John Alejos, Terratec's regional director of operations (raise boring), said: "Terratec's units are in great demand due to the simplicity of their design, which ensures robust performance underground and very high mechanical availability rates. Now, Colombia's first modern underground mine will also get to benefit from the reliability and performance of these durable machines."

Terratec's experienced engineering and field service team can assist buyers from the planning stage, including custom design specifications, assembly and operation of RBMs on site, and lifetime servicing and maintenance support. Terratec has numerous RBMs currently working along the American continent in Canada, the US, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Argentina. These include the company's range of raise boring machines, down-reaming drills and box holing rigs, as well as combination of those in the form of universal boring machines, all of which have been recognised for their high-performance design.