Experienced, motivated and hard-working crews, excellent drilling conditions, continuous operation without unscheduled delays, high-tech equipment and high equipment availability, and top-level field support, were all factors that came into play in May when specialised contractor UME Australia drilled 15,206.9m of long-hole stope holes at Mt Wright, the emerging flagship underground mine set to start feeding ore to Resolute Ltd’s Ravenswood mill ahead of schedule this month.
“When you’ve got all those things happening, and everyone is working together – the crews, the mine operator and the people providing back-up – it makes it a breeze. At this site we’ve had a really good set-up in terms of the nature of the work, and the logistics and ground conditions. It all came together, which doesn’t happen very often,” UME leading hand Eltherington said.
The result, says Resolute project manager for the Carpentaria Gold operations Craig Delany, will be an early start to production at Mt Wright where the company is targeting output of up to 800,000 tonnes in fiscal 2008 and one million tonnes per annum thereafter. The project, about 14km from the Ravenswood plant, has total resources estimated at 9.8Mt grading 3.4gpt. Its development significantly extends the life of the Ravenswood operation.
“Getting that first stope drilled out means we’ll start producing from Mt Wright this financial year. That’s not something we expected to do,” Delany said.
“It also puts us on track to achieve higher production in the new financial year.
“It’s an unbelievable number of metres for one month. Given your typical operational issues, your maintenance issues – there are always mechanical problems with machinery because of the underground environment – it’s been an extremely good performance by the UME lads.”
Further enhancing its reputation as an industry leader, UME shifted rapidly into high gear at Mt Wright after mobilising on site in mid-April. The new production drilling contract marks a return by the company to Ravenswood where it has worked previously for Carpentaria.
UME contracts and projects manager Stephen Bryant said excellent ground conditions – the drilling was in a weathered rhyolite breccia – and drilling team performance coupled with good support and co-operation from the Carpentaria Gold management team and UME logistics management all were key factors in attaining the latest drilling milestone.
“It’s a pretty good mark and it sets the pace for the rest of the company,” he said.
“Most of our sites are pretty competitive with each other. This will be a hard target to beat I think.”
Using an Atlas Copco Simba L6 automated production drill to drill 89mm-diameter holes in standard up-hole and down-hole rings in Mt Wright’s 40m-spaced production sub-levels, the UME crews worked continuous 12-hour shifts in May. There were no safety incidents during the month.
Bryant said the Simba L6 was “without a doubt one of the best rigs around”.
“We’ve operated all sorts of rigs. The L6 is one of the best rigs I’ve ever seen,” he said.
“We’ve only had it for a year or so and we’ve had some excellent results from it and hence it is our intention as part of a strategy to continually renew and modernise our drilling fleet to progressively replace our [older] Simbas with the L6 model.”
UME has grown significantly since it was established in 2001, more than trebling the size of its full-time workforce in the past three years to more than 30 people. It will soon have six underground development jumbos and currently has five contracts in progress in Queensland and South Australia.
“We’ve got a few Australian records and a few world records already for metres per shift and things like that, and we’ve consistently achieved our targets at every site we’ve been to. And that comes down to the equipment, and the people and the back-up. Without them you wouldn’t get those sorts of drilling numbers.”
Eltherington said six weeks of on-site maintenance support from an Atlas Copco team headed by Rudy Smith was another important factor in the drilling performance. Record metreage for a shift of 426.4m had been posted since the end of May.
“Having spare parts available when needed, and the general good service from Atlas Copco, does make a difference,” he said.
“These [Simba L6] are very user friendly. They are fully automatic – the machine is drilling the hole, pulling the rods and then it sits there and waits for the operator to set up the next hole.
“All of the operators, as far as I’m aware, really like this machine. The operator comfort features - roominess in the cab, visibility and general comfort – are outstanding.”

Experienced driller Brian Eltherington didn’t think he’d ever hear himself saying 15,000 production drill-hole metres in a calendar month was “a breeze”.
But the leading hand at the greenfields Mt Wright gold project site in north Queensland probably didn’t expect to find himself in the middle of a “perfect storm” either – a set of conditions and factors conducive to drilling so many metres in the one place at the one time.
Experienced, motivated and hard-working crews, excellent drilling conditions, continuous operation without unscheduled delays, high-tech equipment and high equipment availability, and top-level field support, were all factors that came into play in May when specialised contractor UME Australia drilled 15,206.9m of long-hole stope holes at Mt Wright, the emerging flagship underground mine set to start feeding ore to Resolute Ltd’s Ravenswood mill ahead of schedule this month.
“When you’ve got all those things happening, and everyone is working together – the crews, the mine operator and the people providing back-up – it makes it a breeze. At this site we’ve had a really good set-up in terms of the nature of the work, and the logistics and ground conditions. It all came together, which doesn’t happen very often,” UME leading hand Eltherington said.
The result, says Resolute project manager for the Carpentaria Gold operations Craig Delany, will be an early start to production at Mt Wright where the company is targeting output of up to 800,000 tonnes in fiscal 2008 and one million tonnes per annum thereafter. The project, about 14km from the Ravenswood plant, has total resources estimated at 9.8Mt grading 3.4gpt. Its development significantly extends the life of the Ravenswood operation.
“Getting that first stope drilled out means we’ll start producing from Mt Wright this financial year. That’s not something we expected to do,” Delany said.
“It also puts us on track to achieve higher production in the new financial year.
“It’s an unbelievable number of metres for one month. Given your typical operational issues, your maintenance issues – there are always mechanical problems with machinery because of the underground environment – it’s been an extremely good performance by the UME lads.”
Further enhancing its reputation as an industry leader, UME shifted rapidly into high gear at Mt Wright after mobilising on site in mid-April. The new production drilling contract marks a return by the company to Ravenswood where it has worked previously for Carpentaria.
UME contracts and projects manager Stephen Bryant said excellent ground conditions – the drilling was in a weathered rhyolite breccia – and drilling team performance coupled with good support and co-operation from the Carpentaria Gold management team and UME logistics management all were key factors in attaining the latest drilling milestone.
“It’s a pretty good mark and it sets the pace for the rest of the company,” he said.
“Most of our sites are pretty competitive with each other. This will be a hard target to beat I think.”
Using an Atlas Copco Simba L6 automated production drill to drill 89mm-diameter holes in standard up-hole and down-hole rings in Mt Wright’s 40m-spaced production sub-levels, the UME crews worked continuous 12-hour shifts in May. There were no safety incidents during the month.
Bryant said the Simba L6 was “without a doubt one of the best rigs around”.
“We’ve operated all sorts of rigs. The L6 is one of the best rigs I’ve ever seen,” he said.
“We’ve only had it for a year or so and we’ve had some excellent results from it and hence it is our intention as part of a strategy to continually renew and modernise our drilling fleet to progressively replace our [older] Simbas with the L6 model.”
UME has grown significantly since it was established in 2001, more than trebling the size of its full-time workforce in the past three years to more than 30 people. It will soon have six underground development jumbos and currently has five contracts in progress in Queensland and South Australia.
“We’ve got a few Australian records and a few world records already for metres per shift and things like that, and we’ve consistently achieved our targets at every site we’ve been to. And that comes down to the equipment, and the people and the back-up. Without them you wouldn’t get those sorts of drilling numbers.”
Eltherington said six weeks of on-site maintenance support from an Atlas Copco team headed by Rudy Smith was another important factor in the drilling performance. Record metreage for a shift of 426.4m had been posted since the end of May.
“Having spare parts available when needed, and the general good service from Atlas Copco, does make a difference,” he said.
“These [Simba L6] are very user friendly. They are fully automatic – the machine is drilling the hole, pulling the rods and then it sits there and waits for the operator to set up the next hole.
“All of the operators, as far as I’m aware, really like this machine. The operator comfort features - roominess in the cab, visibility and general comfort – are outstanding.”