Underground Ears Guide Drilling

摘要

By listening to the sounds made by a drill 300 metres below the surface, scientists have succeeded in guiding the drill to its target, offering hope of cutting mining costs in future. Coal seam mining involves drilling two vertical holes and connecting them beneath the surface. However, it is easy to miss the target when drilling at considerable depths to link the two holes. For the first time CSIRO's Minerals Down Under Flagship has demonstrated the viability of using microseismic monitoring to track the location of the drill and guide it successfully. In this case the two boreholes were 1200 metres apart, creating a substantial challenge to connect the two holes.