For the past three years, Agnico-Eagle has been running an extensive ore prospecting project at its Kittilä mine with KATI Oy as one of its main contractors. KATI Oy has deployed several drill rigs at the Kittilä Mine. More KATI Oy rigs have been deployed at Agnico-Eagle’s other regional ore prospecting sites.
Kittilä Mine has drilling targets for ore exploration in two different depth ranges: 400–600 metres and below 600 metres. The targets in the 400–600-metre ranges have been drilled using BQTK and WL-56 equipment, with the length of individual boreholes varying between 500 and 900 metres. The total drilling distance covered at these sites is 24,000 metres.
The majority of drilling carried out by KATI Oy so far – approximately 29,500 metres – has been conducted using core drilling units and NQ2 equipment. The core drilling targets have varied between 600 and 1,500 metres, and the deepest hole bored by KATI Oy lies at a depth of 1,918 metres.
All core drilling has been done using the Devico technique, and most holes have been drilled by branching at a depth of 400–700 metres. This has resulted in high precision and very significant cost savings.
The quality of KATI Oy’s drilling work has been proven to be outstanding throughout the project. KATI Oy’s employees are motivated and competent to work even in challenging conditions, no matter what the season. The excellent technical condition of equipment and devices and the ISO-certified environmental management system ensures they provide customers a reliable service.
Jukka Välimaa
Senior Geologist
Agnico-Eagle