WorldWide Drilling Resource

Sonic Drilling Around the World Adapted from Information by Argyle and Associates for Sonic Drilling, Ltd. Canadian engineer, Ray Roussy established Sonic Drilling, Ltd. more than 30 years ago to test his newly patented sonic drilling technology. Roussy holds dozens of patents, and he was the only one able to figure out the commercialization of sonic drilling technology. “Not that long ago, we would be accused of exaggerating at trade shows when we told people how fast a sonic drill could bore,” said Roussy. “People thought it was a gimmick . . . even engineers had a hard time understanding how it worked until they saw one in action.” Although drill operators were skeptical at first, when they heard a sonic rig was in town, they would make time to stop by and see if the hype was true - and it was! Today, the revolutionary sonic drilling technology is used around the world in almost every application imaginable. Of all its uses, it has earned a stellar reputation as a rescue rig capable of drilling through impossible soil conditions which would jam up rotary rigs, delay projects, or make others unfeasible. “We’ve taken these rigs on the road as far north as the arctic, across Canada, and into the U.S., depending on client re- quests. We’ve even barged rigs into more remote locations,” said Roussy, president of Sonic Drilling Ltd. and the Sonic Drill Corporation. His technology has won four awards and grown into an international export. Based in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, Sonic Drilling, has proven its success across the globe. Here’s a small sampling of where some of Roussy’s drill heads are now and what they’re working on: • Diamond exploration in Africa • Expanding an underground subway in New York, USA • Revealing glacial secrets in Alberta, Canada • Searching for gold in Yanacocha, Peru • Drilling for bauxite in Guyana, South America • Geothermal drilling for an American school in Chofu, Japan • Platinum mining at the Kondyor Mine in Russia • Helping to rebuild after the tsunami at Sendai, Japan • Mineral exploration in Chile • Drilling offshore of New Zealand from a WWII landing craft • Installing a road pavement melting system in Japan • Unlocking gas deposits in the Arctic • Rehabilitating nuclear waste sites in the USA • Drilling in the difficult silica-laden Mississippi area, USA Closer to home, Roussy’s drilling technology has been used on numerous projects throughout the Lower Mainland, as well as further afield. In fact, companies on the Lower Mainland have embraced Roussy’s fleet of sonic drill rigs and used them on a number of projects, including: • Surrey Woodward Hill School • Skytrain Evergreen Line • UBC library extension • Langara Community College • Langley Municipal Building • New Westminster Dominion Complex • Vancouver Tunnel Sonic drilling offers incredible speed (3-5 times faster, it’s the fastest drill on the planet). It also has the ability to core easily through mixed soils without jam- ming up or requiring a rig switch out. Ad- ditionally, only a sonic drill can recover a continuous core sample including boul- ders, clays, silt, sand, and gravel, and lay it in its stratigraphic sequence - from the surface all the way down to 300 feet and beyond. Nowadays, sonic drilling technology is pretty well known, however, what isn’t as well known is despite different brand names, almost all of the sonic drills in existence carry the patented Roussy sonic drill head. 44 MARCH 2017 WorldWide Drilling Resource ®