MSB Global Capital Corp. (MSBM): Thoughts on the drilling rig. From th...

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fazoolius

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Monday, 08/20/2007 7:16:46 PM

Monday, August 20, 2007 7:16:46 PM

Thoughts on the drilling rig.

From the pictures I have done a little research and I believe we have a rig that does Rotary Air Blast (R.A.B.) Drilling

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From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drilling_rig)

RAB drilling is used most frequently in the mineral exploration industry. The drill uses a pneumatic reciprocating piston-driven 'hammer' to energetically drive a heavy drill bit into the rock. The drill bit is hollow, solid steel and has ~20 mm thick tungsten rods protruding from the steel matrix as 'buttons'. The tungsten buttons are the cutting face of the bit.

The cuttings are blown up the outside of the rods and collected at surface. Air or a combination of air and foam are used to lift the cuttings.

RAB drilling is used primarily for mineral exploration, water bore drilling and blast-hole drilling in mines, as well as for other applications such as engineering, etc. RAB produces lower quality samples because the cuttings are blown up the outside of the rods and can be contaminated from contact with other rocks. RAB drilling rarely achieves more than 150 metres depth as encountering water rapidly clogs the outside of the hole with debris, precluding removal of drill cuttings from the hole.

This can be counteracted, however, with the use of 'stabilisers' also known as 'reamers', which are large cylindrical pieces of steel attached to the drill string, and made to perfectly fit the size of the hole being drilled. These have sets of rollers on the side, usually with tungsten buttons, that constantly break down cuttings being pushed upwards.

The use of multiple high-powered air compressors, which push 900-1150cfm of air at 300-350psi down the hole also ensures drilling of a deeper hole up to ~1250m due to higher air pressure which pushes all rock cuttings and any water to the surface. This, of course, is all Dependant on the density and weight of the rock being drilled, and on how worn the drill bit is.
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Everything seemed to fit except the line indicating that this type of drilling uses hollow drill bits. This is not correct because the images provided from the website clearly show the rig is using a tr-cone drill bit:

More info on Tri-cone bits: http://www.bakerhughesdirect.com/cgi/hcc/resources/ExternalFileHandler.jsp?path=private/HCC/public/t...

However, I found this: (from http://www.midnightsundrilling.com/rotary_air_blast_drilling.html)

Rotary Air Blast Drilling is used when you want a quick inexpensive hole to obtain a sample of decent quality. Is normally used for shallow applications such as Gravel searches or Bedrock probing.

A hole is drilled down with either a Tricone Rotary bit or a conventional down hole hammer. The drill pipe is a conventional single passage pipe with the air travelling down the inside of the pipe and the sample travelling up the outside between the pipe and the hole.

I will do some more research and see what else I can find on this type of system.

-faz

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