Water Earth Life

 

Aqua Earth Consulting offers professional, practical solutions to our clients' geohydrological and engineering geological environments. These services include an integrated and effective approach to the management, utilisation and monitoring of water resources, as well as legal and environmental aspects related to these environments.

Our firm consists of a team of specialists in hydrogeology (groundwater), engineering geology and  geology with expert knowledge in all aspects of groundwater related projects, including amongst others siting, drilling, testing, characterization, aquifer classification, groundwater modelling, monitoring, maintenance and management of groundwater related infrastructure. These environments include mines, industry, rural water supply throughout Africa.

Our equipment includes state of the art percussion drill rigs, pump test units and down the hole logging equipment and a borehole camera.  All projects have full logistical support with backup vehicles, site personnel and professional planning.

Our crews are trained in all aspects of safe and efficient operations, and adhere to the best practise health, safety and environmental standards. All our crews adhere to highest standards of health and safety regulations with health and safety Risk Assessments and best practice guidelines in place on all our professional and contractual operations.

The clients we serve include local and internationally based mines, national and international government departments, local authorities, municipalities, private clients and our network of Consultants.

 

 


 
 

Drilling work in progress

Drilling work in progressA drilling rig is a machine which creates holes (usually called boreholes) and/or shafts in the ground. Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to drill water wells, oil wells, or natural gas extraction wells or they can be small enough to be moved manually by one person. They sample sub-surface mineral deposits, test rock, soil and groundwater physical properties, and to install sub-surface fabrications, such as underground utilities, instrumentation, tunnels or wells. Drilling rigs can be mobile equipment mounted on trucks, tracks or trailers, or more permanent land or marine-based structures (such as oil platforms, commonly called 'offshore oil rigs'). The term "rig" therefore generally refers to the complex of equipment that is used to penetrate the surface of the earth's crust.

RAB drilling

Drilling EquipmentRAB drilling is used most frequently in the mineral exploration industry. The drill uses a pneumatic reciprocating piston-driven 'hammer' to energetically drive a heavy drill bit into the rock. The drill bit is hollow, solid steel and has ~20 mm thick tungsten rods protruding from the steel matrix as 'buttons'. The tungsten buttons are the cutting face of the bit.

The cuttings are blown up the outside of the rods and collected at surface. Air or a combination of air and foam lift the cuttings.

RAB drilling is used primarily for mineral exploration, water bore drilling and blast-hole drilling in mines, as well as for other applications such as engineering, etc. RAB produces lower quality samples because the cuttings are blown up the outside of the rods and can be contaminated from contact with other rocks. RAB drilling rarely achieves more than 150 metres depth as encountering water rapidly clogs the outside of the hole with debris, precluding removal of drill cuttings from the hole.