Capable of drilling to depths of up to 250ft (78m) when used with 4.75in (121mm) casing, the wide 600mm rubber tracks provide low ground pressure (0.28 bar/4psi) and make it suitable for jobs in sensitive and fragile terrains.

According to Boart Longyear, its smaller footprint makes it appropriate for projects with small drill pads, environmentally sensitive areas or hard-to-reach sites and requires less support equipment - making it a low-cost solution for a variety of mining, environmental, geotechnical and infrastructure drilling projects.

Greg Guillot, senior product manager for capital equipment, commented: "Boart Longyear has had this sonic head in the field for 10 years, and its reliability is unmatched. That means more uptime and drilling hours between head maintenance, which results in lower operating costs and higher productivity."

Safety features of the rig include an interlocked rotation barrier, reduced noise levels, a dump mast and wiggle tail, and a rod presenter. The LS250 MiniSonic provides lower noise levels when equipped with the Tier 4i engine package.

Boart stated that it is the ideal rig for a wide variety of soft ground, shallow drilling projects, including environmental, tunnelling, water management, grade control and leach pads.

Read more about the LS250 MiniSonic in GeoDrilling International's upcoming May edition.