FORACO Australia recently expanded its Large Diameter Coring (LDC) capability, with the introduction of a 6” wireline system.  The 6” wireline LDC is more productive at depth as it does not require the drill string to be removed from the hole to empty the corebarrel following each 1.5m or 3m coring run (as done with the 8” conventional coring system).

The net result is more “bit on bottom” time which increases productivity and lower costs, reduces exposure to potential hazards (less pipe tripping), and is less damaging to borehole integrity when drilling unstable formations (no pipe tripping for each corebarrel run).

FORACO’s proprietary in house design is based on risk management principals to eliminate or minimize potential hazards, including hands free breakouts and pipe handling.

Since the introduction of six inch wireline coring in the Pilbara region of Western Australia in late 2014, the system has demonstrated its value (core volume), productivity (metres drilled and core recovery), inherent safety (no manual handling) and efficiency, with drill moves between holes taking less than six hours.  Six inch wireline coring provides approximately 16.7 litres of core volume per linear metre, ~ 3 times PQ3.  A total of 1,957m was drilled on this initial program including 529m of 12 ¼” rotary and 1,428m of 6” wireline core with 1,375m of core recovered (96%).  The program was completed with zero recordable incidents.