partners accepted that they were not drill experts. Admittedly, Virginia Drill- ing Chief Operating Officer Clinton Evans pointed out they had lots to learn and wanted to work closely with drill dealer Brandeis Equipment to develop a maintenance program.
“When choosing a drill it was really a no-brainer,” said Evans. They went with Atlas Copco because if its prod- uct reputation, but also they needed a strong dealer that would support every aspect of the drill including parts and support.
According to Brandeis branch ma- nager, Barry Justice, 40 percent of their parts inventory is for Atlas Copco Drills. “If the drills don’t run, the whole mi- ning process stops,” said Justice.
Brandeis has 19 service trucks in the field, running its parts department on a double shift and supplying 24/7 ser- vice to Virginia Drilling. All that atten- tion equates to a higher performance on the drills. The oldest drill in the fleet is a 1999 DML with 22,000 hours. Typi- cally on a mine site the cost of drilling equipment is approximately 5 percent to 10 percent of the total expenditures. This is another reason why some mining companies don’t focus on their drilling.
Virginia Drilling knows that the ex- cavation equipment can catch up to them but can’t pass them.
Atlas Copco regional sales manager Tom Borer said, “Virginia Drilling has drills with 20,000 hours on them that run better than drills owned by others that have 10,000 hours.”
There is no big secret here; it’s all in the preventative maintenance (PM) pro- gram. The main pumps, for example, average 7,000 to 8,000 hours for most,
while Virginia Drilling averages 11,000 to 12,000 hours. It’s not uncommon for Virginia Drilling to get 40 percent gre- ater life out of their drill compo- nents because of the PM program.
Mike Sheets said, “It’s all about ta- king away problems.” Brandeis takes the burden of maintenance away from Virginia Drilling and Virginia Drilling takes away the burden of drilling and blasting from the coal companies.
He emphasized that his customers’ focus is to move material. They don’t want to worry about getting the shot right or all the liability that comes with explosives.
Sheets said, “If everyone focuses on the part of the business that makes them money everyone wins, and if we’re not drilling holes, we’re not making money.”
To ensure they are drilling holes they follow the PM program religiously. If a drill is close to a scheduled PM and a Brandeis truck is in the area, they will perform the service rather than let it get behind. As a contract driller for many mining operations in the area, Virginia
Drilling takes total responsibility for the drilling and blasting operation. The agreement with its customers is a win- win for everyone.
When this part of the business began and the deal was laid out for the custo- mer, he didn’t believe it. “He told us it seemed too good to be true,” said Sheets.
They proposed a sliding scale based on 50,000 to 1 million yards of shot material with discounts built in for vo- lume. Virginia Drilling guaranteed the product amount in the customer’s time- frame. They absorb most costs related to putting the product on the ground, from equipment to human resources to blasting material.
“When we finished making our proposal the first response was ‘where do I sign,’” said Sheets. Today Virginia Drilling´s client list is long and growing.
training equals success
People are a critical part of making this work. At any one time Virginia Drilling has seven to eight drill trainees, withthat number going as high as ten. The training program has developed over time to what it is today, a well executed system. For the first two weeks they mostly watch and listen. They learn how to set up on the bench, put the mast up and down and terminology. They learn by watching and listening.
“We prefer they don’t even come in with experience,” said Evans.
They don’t want new employees to have bad habits and to learn drilling according to the company’s operation. After they have a couple weeks with the best drillers they come in for class- room work. They learn down pressure, rotation, penetration rates, bit perfor- mance and compressor and engine ope- ration, everything they need to know about the drill and what its responsibil- ity is for drilling the hole.
Then the trainees go back in the field with the experienced driller again to apply the classroom work. Every month drillers are evaluated to make sure they are getting optimum production, maximum penetration and bit life
and overall efficiency. But, all the as- pects of training come right back to keeping the drill working at its maxi- mum performance rate.
“We expect to get 30,000 hours from our drills,” said Evans.
The drillers have to be doing their job correctly to ensure that level of equipment life.