Can you give an overview of Boart Longyear and the services the company offers mining companies in the Southwestern US?

Boart Longyear is one of the largest global drilling companies, offering drilling services, drilling products, and innovative technologies to the mining sector. We offer our full range of services in the Southwestern US, with surface coring and reverse circulation (RC) drilling being most in demand in both Arizona and Nevada. We also do a significant amount of sonic work, as well as water work. Boart Longyear has offices in Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and in Elko, Nevada. Quite unique is that we have an extremely large fleet of our LF 160 Surface Coring Drill Rigs in Southwestern US. These rigs have all the safety features customers are looking for and are therefore high in demand. One of the first companies to start using the LF 160 was South 32.

What are the reasons behind Boart Longyear’s 18% revenue increase in the first half of 2022?

Our customers, particularly explorers, are in a good place. Most of the mining companies have been de-levered over the last few years and do not carry a lot of debt, but in the lean years, they used some of their reserves to save money and now need to replace those reserves. Commodity prices are currently strong, particularly copper and gold, and companies are again out drilling as demands continue to increase. I believe this increased drilling activity will continue into 2023, and we are anticipating strong business for the foreseeable future.

How is Boart Longyear mitigating current inflationary pressures?

Many of our products are significantly made from steel. Although inflation appears to be a longer-term situation, supply chain issues are starting to alleviate, and we believe this trend will continue. Drilling services have cost pressure in terms of higher consumable costs, and labor inflation is a big cost pressure. Energy is still an issue for us as it is also a significant part of our cost base.

Inflation can to some degree be mitigated through the benefits of using technology. For example, our TruScan technology has demonstrated that mining companies can significantly save money by changing their exploration processes and improving the effectiveness of the information that they gather using those technologies. Boart Longyear is also introducing our downhole survey product, TruGyro, into the market this year.

To what extent is ESG a key business driver for Boart Longyear?

Boart Longyear is focused on having strong ESG practices and we are committed to being a leader in this space. In 2022 we published our first ESG report and have strong ambitions to continue down this pathway. We are putting in the effort to increase diversity in this sector through new technologies. Technology gives women access to do jobs previously seen as inaccessible. Today, we have women in all parts of our operations - some drill crews are led by women, they do heavy equipment maintenance, and we have female welders. Our new technologies and the way we are educating people about the possibilities of working for us is opening a whole new part of the workforce, which is a great benefit in a period where access to workers is limited.

How do you incorporate safety and training measures into your day-to-day work?

We have the strongest safety track record in the drilling industry. Drilling has a lot of risks to it, and we spend a significant amount of effort in our safety processes and systems. Also, new technologies can engineer out risks on safety that we could not before. For example, rod handling applications that allow for lower lifting demands, and automation technologies allowing drill rig operators to be further away from the rig.

What challenges and opportunities do you see operating in Arizona and Nevada as mining jurisdictions?

There are drought conditions in the Southwestern US, but many times as mining companies go deeper underground, they actually have the opposite problem and need to de-water those mines. Boart Longyear assist clients in de-watering, helping develop new areas for mining underground. The attractiveness of Arizona and Nevada is primarily the existing infrastructure for getting to mine sites and operating the mines.