HYDRACORE HISTORY
This history is rather long to read, but it is here to show you that our drills were developed over a long period of time. You don’t have to read it. Our rather long history is why these drills have a high degree of refinement. The refinement is not immediately obvious. When you look at the drills they look rather plain. The result of this refinement is that our drills are very reliable and have low maintenance costs. This comes from our constant quest for simplicity. Most other drill manufacturers don’t try to achieve simplicity. Even little parts of our drill like the winches and water pump have this attention to detail, that comes from long experience. We try to eliminate parts that we know wear and parts that break. These small details are what reduce breakdowns to a very low level. Few other drills have this attention to detail.
Hydracore Drills Ltd. started out as Wink International Drilling and exploration in the mid 1970's. The main business at time was contract drilling with JKS Winkie drills. The JKS Winkie drill had been designed by Fred Wink who was the owner of the company. The Winkie was at that time the best drill available for jobs with short holes requiring hand moves.
Truman Younie went into Partnership with Fred Wink in 1979. The HydraWink drill was then designed. The HydraWink was intended for Helicopter work it had a VW 50HP Gasoline engine and could drill about 750' of BQ. Hydracore's contracting activity shifted towards working with the HydraWink rather than the Winkie and began manufacturing Drills. The HydraWink sold well because it was the lightest machine of it's capacity available at the time. Also there was a lot of exploration for open pit copper mines for which the HydraWink was very suitable.
Fred Wink Left the company in 1980 to Develop the Wink Vibracore Drill. Truman Younie changed the name of the company to Hydracore Drills Ltd. In 1981 Longyear Company made an agreement to sell the HydraWink worldwide; the name of the drill was changed to Hydracore 28 at that time. Longyear continued to sell the 28 until 1990. Over 67 Hydracore 28s have been made with different engines and options to date.
In 1982 Nigel Spaxman began working for Hydracore. In 1983 the first Gopher Drill was built. The Gopher was originally intended for short holes A size with hand moves. Hydracore began selling Gophers and also started contracting with Gophers around British Columbia.
In 1984 the first Underground version of the Gopher was built. The first drill was tested and eventually bought by Morrissette Drilling in Val'Dor Quebec. Morrissette bought 9 Gopher drills which they used in Ontario and Quebec in many of the new mines that were opening up. Like the surface Gopher the U.G. could out drill most larger drills up to its rated depth capacity. Hydracore sold lots of these because it was the right time and price for a drill like this. The U.G. Gopher was so successful that Longyear built a very close copy, called the LM22.
In 1988 the first Prospector Drill was built. The Prospector was built for short holes with hand moves just as the Gopher had been. The Gopher had at this point grown so that it was no longer easily moved. Most of the Gophers were being built with Kubota Diesel engines.
In the early 90's a very original drill called the Neway Drill was built and tested. Unfortunately it didn't drill as fast as was required so it was scrapped. Improved versions of the U.G. Gopher were built using some of the parts that were designed for the Neway Drill. The Gophers with this design of feedframe are called the MKII U.G. Gophers. This feedframe design has the advantages of shorter overall length, and greater strength.
In 1994 Truman Younie decided to retire, at that time Truman and Nigel sold their shares in Hydracore to a new owner, Fern Boisvenu who presently owns the company. Fern also owned F. Boisvenu Drilling at that time. Boisvenu Drilling was a B.C. based contract drilling company that did underground and surface, work all across Canada.
Just before Truman retired the first Pack Drill was built. About 25 of these have been sold so far. Almost all the Pack Drill owners have requested that the drill be improved by adding a hydraulic feed cylinder. In 1998 we built the first Pack Drill with a hydraulic feed cylinder. Like all of the drills designed by Hydracore the Pack Drill is getting larger. The Pack Drill is of similar capacity to the original JKS Winkie that the Company started out with in the mid 70's.
The Prospector has grown to a similar capacity to the original Gopher Drill. The Gopher Surface Drill has now grown so that it has similar capacity to the original HydraWink. The HydraWink has grown into a drill we call the Hydracore 2000 which has a capacity of 2000' of BQ which is more than double the capacity of the HydraWink. All the drills are being increased in capacity without huge increases in weight. We still remain specialized in equipment that is much more compact than is offered by other manufacturers.