Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/661612
52 www.resourceworld.com A P R I L / M A Y 2 0 1 6 MININGWORLD M ost of us would say a drill is a tool that turns. The Wink Vibracore overburden sampling drill, how- ever, vibrates. In an interview, Rob Dyck, President of the Wink Vibracore Drill Company, explained how it works. "The Vibracore Drill works by the drill head creating an extreme vibration," he said. "We transfer that vibration down the drill rods, down the drill string, so that it contacts the ground or strata that we are coring. The high speed vibration creates a liquefaction effect that allows the drill string to penetrate down through the strata. The solid steel drill casing just slides straight through the overburden under those conditions." Dyck noted that there is a secondary benefit. "The high speed vibration also causes the overburden material to flow nicely up inside the core tube so that we can collect the sample very efficiently," he said. The drill can penetrate through vari- ous types of overburden such as organics, clays, and gravel layers (so long as the cobbles in the gravel are of a small enough size that it can fit inside the drill string. Different bit sizes can be used. "The most common drill rods that we use are wire line drill rods: the B-size, M-size, and for larger application, the H-size wire line rods," said Dyck. "These are high strength drill rods; however, they still have a thin wall so we are able to capture a large sample inside the rods." With the basic package, the Vibracore Drill, with the light hoisting equipment, is designed for a range of about 15 metres, or 40-50 feet. "The drill can go much deeper than that though heavier hoisting equip- ment will be required to pull the drill rods out," said Dyck. Dyck said that the Vibracore Drill can also be utilized for non-mineral explora- tion applications. "With a slowdown in the mining industry, we are selling drills for various other applications as well. There are many applications for geotechnical work and for research. We do much business with universities that are setting up soil sampling programs. We also deal with gov- ernment agencies, geological surveys and various levels of governments interested in soil research." There are two ways for geologists to view the core samples. "We have a system where we can load a rigid, thin-walled plastic tube inside the drill rod, lock it in place and when the drill captures the material inside the plastic liner, we slide it out of the drill rod perfectly preserved," explained Dyck. "Soil researchers can split the plastic tube and treat it with resin to perma- nently preserve the sample. Other applications such as sampling mine tailings just require the material from a 5-foot sample dumped into a sack or pail, labeled and the depth logged." The speed of the drill penetration is a reaction to the type of sediment or soil being drilled. "In some of the applications, our drill can advance so fast that we need to slow it down so that the strata we are trying to capture has time to fill the core tube," said Dyck. "On the other end of the scale, we can run the machine for five or 10 minutes while it slowly breaks up the gravel layer and works its way through it." The Vibracore Drill can easily be brought to remote sites by helicopter. "This is an excellent system for remote access," said Dyck. "Much of the work we do is remote access such as high-altitude glacial lake sediments. Another interest- ing project was sampling inter-tidal zones by the ocean in British Columbia. In that case we had to wait until the tide went out and then hand-carry the equipment to the soft, brackish sample sites, drill and get out before the tide rolled back in. We only had a six-hour window to core several locations." The company manufactures the Vibracore Drill and exports it all over the world. At present, export sales far outweigh domestic sales. "We have con- tractors that operate the equipment." For the coming year the Wink Vibracore Drill Company plans to expand sales inter- nationally. "We have distributors in China, India and we are working on the US." The Wink Vibracore Drill was invented by the late Fred Wink who also invented the popular Winkie portable diamond drill. n Rob Dyck, President of the Wink Vibracore Drill Company, stands by the drill and is holding two sizes of soil sampling drill bits. Photo by Ellsworth Dickson. Wink Vibracore Drill has multiple applications by Ellsworth Dickson