FORACO commenced drilling in the Bowen Basin in 2010. 

An initial four rig contract expanded quickly to six rigs. The majority of rigs were located 70km north of Moranbah on a project known for its deep “mushy coals”, swelling shales and generally difficult drilling conditions.

This site was also the inaugural project for the Safe T Sloop (STS) which introduced mechanized hands free rod handling for all drilling operations including diamond coring. One of Safe T Sloop’s first wells was complimenting Rig 3 on a 985m rotary mud chip hole where others had previously failed to reach TD. 5 9/16” casing was set at 655m and the hole advanced with a 5” PCD bit to 965m.

In the ensuing ten years, FORACO has completed hundreds of thousands of metres of drilling, including:

• chip sampling,
• HQ and PQ wireline coring,
• 4” and 8” conventional coring,
• CSG exploration,
• Water Wells and
• instrument installations.