Please bear with me and read the whole thing before you feel the need to slap me around for missing some critical piece. Everything here is based on my first hand experience which is probably not representative of the world as a whole but at least gives a reference point.

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NOT all drills are created equal. An oil rig is like a distant cousin to a mineral exploration rig. Similarly a reverse circulation rig is a distant cousin to a diamond drill. They all drill holes in the ground but that about the degree of similarity and to retrofit one from one task to the other would be almost the same as building one. We are currently using diamond drill rigd.

The biggest difference between rigs types is that DDs have an open bit (like a donut) on the end of the drill rod/pipe that leaves a column of core that gets pushed up into the core tube up inside the drill rod/pipe when they drill. The whole drill is designed around being able to retrieve the core. RCs have a solid bit on the end that chips the rock either through rotation or rotation and hammering. They produce chips of rock that are flushed back up the drill rod with either air or water depending on design.

A diamond drill that can reliably do 500-600 meter holes would be under $500K. I check around and there were several used ones for under $70K. All the support pieces and parts can run you another $100K. A diamond drill is basically a diesel engine that drives a large hydraulic pump that powers the chuck that turns/raises/lowers the drill string and powers the hoist that is used to raise the core tube and to pull/lift the drill string as needed for bit changes or when they finish the hole.

The problem is that they can’t build drills as fast as drill companies are buying them and you can’t find experienced drill crews even if you have a machine. I imagine training is a relative concept right now but it takes many months of experience to be the ‘driller’. Not so much to be able to drill a hole but to be able to do it efficiently. Push to hard and you strip your bit, snap or lose your drill string etc etc etc. Go to slow and you and the company don’t make any money.

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On a multi-drill project their will be a foreman and mechanic and drill crews. The drill crews consist of a driller, a helper and sometimes a gopher for every shift. The driller runs the drill. The helper keeps the water source running to the drill, empties the core tube, mans the tower if the drill string is being pulled and whatever else the driller needs. The gopher does all the grunt work, delivering fuel and supplies, helping when disaster strikes, prepping the way to the next drill location and getting it ready, and making sure that the drill is properly supported. [As an aside -- (the gopher’s main job in the winter is to make sure that the water supply for the drill is maintained. In the winter the lakes can have 20” to 40” of ice on them and most streams freeze to the bottom. The drill needs water to lubricate the hole and flush the bits of rock away from the drill bit. This often means that water is pumped from sources that several hundred meters away from the drill through heavy 1.5 inch rubber hose. Every 3 to 400 meters their will be a diesel fired heaters to warm the water to keep it from freezing. In -30 or -40 degree weather if the heater goes out you have maybe 10 minutes to get it going before you have an ice filled hose and a very unhappy drill crew. Unfortunately the first sign of trouble is usually when the water stops flowing at the drill due to the line freezing. On those shifts being a gopher is NOT a fun job.)]

The drill itself is usually mounted on heavy metal skids (like a kid’s sled from the 1930’s but on massive steroids) with 2x12 plank floors. The shack that encloses the drill is made out of 2x4 and plywood walls with a plywood door. There is a hole in the ceiling for the tower and plywood is slid over it when someone isn’t up the tower. Forget the pictures of shiny new drill rigs from the NOT site or computerized control centers from the movies. The drilling is done through an opening in the cut in the floor, water flows continuously when the drill is on a hole, so the floors are always wet and they use LOTS of grease for lubrication of drill rods and parts. It is a hard dirty job.

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Pay rates vary tremendously from company to company Base pay for a driller will be in the high twenties to mid thirties with the ability to earn substantive performance pay. Good crews can double their salary or more. Helpers earn the mid twenties and gophers in the high teens. Much like tips in a restaurant everyone on a crew gets a cut of the bonus but in different proportions. For this type of money you work hard and live in hostile environments with minimal amenities. 12 hour shifts, 7 days a week, for 6 weeks was the norm. For a fly in type of camp like NOTs 4 guys would live in a 10’ x 16’ insulated tend (the walls are about 1” thick padded material on a tubular aluminum structure) with a oil/diesel heater. The floor would be ¾ plywood on a 2x4 platform. If you put wet boots on the floor at night it wasn’t unusual to find them frozen to the floor in the morning. Bathrooms would consist of plywood walled outhouses. Their would be a tent set aside as a ‘dry’ where the drillers would store there ‘work cloths’ to dry. The heater would be cranked up high to dry everything before next shift. The dry is usually also where the shower stall is located and the washing facilities (depending on camp size). The kitchen would be a couple of the 10x16 tent joined end to end with the cooking facilities at one end and the eating are at the other. There would be additional tent for the geologists’ core shack and office and a maintenance area for drill support. Power is supplied by a diesel generator.

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Oil workers working in mineral exploration? The cultures, skills and the environment that they work in are totally different. Most of the crews I worked with were farmers or fishermen that worked their winters in the bush. They were hired because they had the work ethic, knew how to improvise with machinery, work with hydraulics and were used to dealing with whatever came their way. They made all their money drilling and then used it to allow them to practice their real profession.

... Been There