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Hydracore Man Portable Diamond Drills
In August and September of 1997 Hydracore Drills Ltd. built two drills for Cyprus Amax for use in locations that are not accessible by either road or helicopter. The drills were designed so that the heaviest parts would weigh no more than 120Kg so that men could carry the parts over difficult terrain. Some work like this is done by much larger machines moved by teams of twenty or more men, but this is mainly because the only machines available of sufficient capacity were originally designed to be moved by truck, or Helicopter. Cyprus Amax had determined that they had work for a machine like this if something was available. Some of the drill sites that they had planned would be very difficult to drill with conventional equipment. Cyprus management gave geologist Jonathan Supree the job of finding the best machine available for this up coming work. After narrowing the search for a machine down to a few manufacturers, Jonathan visited drill sites where similar machines were already in use in Ecuador and Dominican Republic before deciding on the Hydracore Gopher Manportable.
The original specification called for a depth capacity of 200 meters of BQ or 60 meters NQ.
The drill was developed from the Hydracore Gopher surface diamond drill, which has been built in several versions since 1984. The Gopher was made originally as a hand portable drill for A size drilling and was based on the design of the Hydracore 28 helicopter portable drill. The original version had only 36HP Gasoline engine, which was plenty for A size drilling. The most popular version was the 28HP Diesel version, which developed a reputation for drilling faster than much larger drills. The reputation of the Gopher Drills was spread by word of mouth around the mining exploration world by geologists and drillers who had used it.
The specifications for the Drill that Cyprus Amax required exceeded the depth capacity of the Diesel powered Gopher even with the now available 40HP turbo charged Diesel. Also the diesel engine is heavier than the maximum weight required. Nigel Spaxman of Hydracore suggested using two small 25HP Kohler Gasoline engines. Johnathan Supree of Cyprus asked if there was any reason why three engines could not be used so that the drill would have plenty of power. This was the configuration decided on. The three engine configuration would also allow the drill to continue drilling even if one of the engines broke down. Hydracore had built drills using the Kohler engines before; also Hydracore had built drills with tandem engines.
The first drill exceeded the original expectations, and met a need that Cyprus had, so they very quickly ordered a second one. The first Drill was tested in Schrieber Ontario, it was then sent to Idaho for a short job. Next the drill was sent back to Hydracore’s shop in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada for a few modifications that were suggested by the Drillers. The first drill was sent to Honduras and a second one was built and sent to Panama. After successful completion of these jobs one drill was sent to Papau New Guinea, and the other one was sent to Zambia where they completed other projects. Many holes have been completed to depths of 350 meters BTW. NTW is often used down to about 120 meters. The rate of production is comparable to larger machines.
Because of the success of Cyprus Amax with their Manportable Drill another Hydracore Customer, Energold Minerals, decided, in 1998, to convert the Gopher Drill they were using in the Dominican Republic to the 3 engine hydraulic power pack, so that it would be identical to the Cyprus machines. This machine was originally powered by a VW 50 HP flat four engine. More depth capacity was required so this machine was converted to 75 HP with 3 small 25 HP Kohler engines. This conversion not only increased the power by 50% but it also made it easier to move by hand.
Later Energold was the first use the new heavy duty feedframe. This feedframe uses a larger hydraulic cylinder to increase the safety margin for pulling stuck rods. This new feedframe is barely any heavier than the original version. On the heavy duty version the cylinder can be quickly removed from the feed frame to lighten it for moving. This is not possible with the original frame because the cylinder is incorporated into the frame. All the 350 meter holes were drilled with the original smaller version.
In 1999 Cyprus Amax, Kluane International Drilling and Bradley drilling all had the requirement for a Manportable machine that could operate at high altitudes in Ecuador and Peru. The original version would not be suitable because the gas engines lose 50% of their power at 16,000 feet. What was required was a Turbo charged engine. The engines that were chosen in the end were the Kubota V1505T (40 HP) and also the V1105T (30 HP). These engines lose only about 20% of their power even at 16,000 feet. Cyprus had decided to use a machine with three of the 30 HP engines because the weight of these engines in the carrying frames is 320 LBS which is easier to move than two of the 40 HP engines which weigh 400 LBS. Cyprus never went ahead with the purchase of these machines because they were taken over by Phelps Dodge and the drilling projects in South America were no longer a high priority.
Bradley Bros. Drilling already had a Gopher Drill with a single 40 HP V1505T Kubota so that machine was converted to a double engine configuration. This machine has now been in use since September 99 in Ecuador. An identical machine was built for Kluane International Drilling; it has now been shipped to Ecuador and will begin working in February 2000.
In August of 2000 another Manportable Drill was built for Kluane International Drilling, this time with 3, 30 HP Turbo Diesel engines. The power of the machine was increased from the previous two 40 HP version but the weight of the engine units dropped from 400 to 320 LBS By Feb. 2002 Kluane had a total of 4 Diesel powered Manportable Drills, and two gas powered ones. Later in 2002 Kluane purchased another Manportable drill for use in Yemen. After this contract was finished this drill was sent to Eritrea. In January of 2003 Kluane ordered another two Manportable drill for delivery in May. These new drills will use the Briggs and Stratton Vanguard D954T Turbo Diesel 3 cylinder engines (made by Daihatsu). These engines are 40 pounds lighter than the Kubota D1105T. They have exactly the same torque as the Kubota, but with a higher horsepower rating due to the fact that they can rev to 3600 RPM rather than the 3000 RPM of the Kubota. Also these engines are smoother running than the Kubota. By the beginning of 2004 Kluane owned about 14 Hydracore Gopher Manportable Drills. Kluane has always advertised that they made these drills themselves, but in fact we made all of them, as well as supplying the parts service and technical advise. Now Kluane and Energold have split up and they both make copies of the Gopher Manportble drill.
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