OREANDA-NEWS. After two years of activity, the Carajas S11D Iron Project team has concluded the geotechnical drilling phase of the project. The operation involved some 800 perforations in an area of approximately 240 square kilometres, totalling 11,000 metres of drilling. These drilling operations precede all civil construction activities. In the case of the S11D project, the principal difficulty lay in gaining access to the areas that required surveying, due to the extremely uneven nature of the terrain

Geotechnical drilling is used to investigate the characteristics of the terrain that will be occupied by the various structural components of the mine and plant. The predominant material determines the type and depth of foundations responsible for supporting the weight and vibration exerted on the ground during the activity, thus ensuring the safety and durability of the project. “Malleable ground, consisting predominantly of sand or clay requires different foundations to those used on rocky ground or where the water table is close to the surface,” explains the leader of the field engineering team, Paulo Marotta.

From this point on, a small drilling team will remain on stand-by to conduct complementary surveys as and when required during construction operations.