Precision exploration drilling means holes that start where they were surveyed, travel where they were aimed and return samples that represent the rock they cut. It is less about a brand of rig than about a contractor’s discipline: collar placement, downhole surveys, sample recovery, clean splitting and honest daily reports. The phrase is also the name of a Western Australian contractor, which we mention below, but the standard applies to every drilling firm you consider.

Try it: Drilling contractor bid comparison →

Drilling is usually the largest line in an exploration budget, and the contractor is the biggest single variable in whether that money buys usable data. Two firms can quote similar metre rates and deliver very different results: one finishes on schedule with 95% recovery and tidy trays, the other runs up standby, loses core in broken ground and drifts holes off section. The difference rarely shows in the headline rate. Our guide to exploration drilling methods and costs covers the rig types and hole planning behind a bid.

“Extras such as standby, moves and consumables often bring the all-inclusive drilling cost to double the base rate.”

What exploration drilling companies actually do

Exploration drilling companies drill holes to find and define mineral deposits. That work is different from the production drilling that mining and drilling companies do inside operating mines (blast holes, long holes, grade-control drilling), even though many large groups offer both. When you search for mineral exploration drilling companies, you want firms whose crews are used to remote sites, frequent moves, careful sample handling and working to a geologist’s plan.

The services on a typical price list

A broad contractor’s list is a good map of the options. Major Drilling, founded in 1980 in Bathurst, New Brunswick and listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange since 1995, describes a range covering surface drilling, underground coring, mineral exploration and environmental drilling, and a shift from 2000 toward specialised drilling for hard-to-reach orebodies. Across the market, mining and drilling services usually fall into these groups:

• Diamond drilling services: surface and underground core drilling in standard wireline sizes, often with oriented core and triple-tube options for broken ground (see our comparison of underground and surface diamond drilling costs).
• Reverse circulation (RC): fast chip sampling of fresh rock, with rig-mounted cyclones and splitters.
• Aircore and RAB: cheap, shallow holes for geochemistry through weathered cover (our geochemical survey design guide covers the sampling side).
• Directional and wedge drilling: steering a hole or branching off it to hit a target from a new angle.
• Sonic, auger and geotechnical drilling for soft ground, tailings, water and engineering studies.
• Support: downhole surveys, core orientation tools, water supply, helicopter-portable rigs and camp services.

Specialist, regional and local diamond drilling firms

Large groups bring fleets, safety systems and the ability to move rigs between continents. Regional firms often know local ground, logistics and regulators better. A local diamond drilling outfit can be the right choice for a short program close to its base, where mobilisation from a distant city would cost more than the drilling. What matters is the match between the rig, the crew’s experience and your ground.

Some contractors carry the word “corporation” in their name, and searches for an exploration drilling corporation or a geological drilling company usually land on the same kind of firm. Judge them on the evidence below, not the name.

How to judge precision exploration drilling before you sign

Every contractor says it is safe, fast and accurate. The way to test the claim is to ask for the records that precision exploration drilling produces. The CIM Mineral Exploration Best Practice Guidelines set out what a well-run program needs, and each point translates into a question for the drilling firm.

Collars and downhole surveys

The CIM guidelines expect drill holes to be surveyed for deviation at regular intervals, with instruments suited to the hole size, angle, length and the magnetism of the host rock. Ask which survey tools the contractor runs, how often, and whether readings are checked in magnetic ground. Ask how collars are set out and picked up. Precision exploration drilling starts with a hole that is where the database says it is.

Recovery and sample quality

For core, ask for recovery statistics from similar ground and what the crew does when recovery drops: shorter runs, triple tube, different muds. For RC, ask how the rig keeps samples dry, how the cyclone is cleaned between runs and what splitter is used. The JORC Code’s Table 1 requires public reports to describe how recoveries were recorded and whether sample bias may have occurred through loss or gain of fine or coarse material. Your contractor’s practices end up in that disclosure.

Daily reports and chain of custody

Good contractors deliver daily shift reports: metres drilled, runs, recovery, bit changes, standby hours and reasons, and consumables. Those reports are how you audit the invoice. They also form part of the record the CIM guidelines expect you to keep for the drill-hole database.

• ✔ Survey tools and frequency stated in the bid.
• ✔ Recovery targets and what happens when they are missed.
• ✔ Sample handling method for core trays or RC splits.
• Standby rules: what counts, at what rate, and who approves it.
• Crew experience with the rig model and the ground type.
• ⚠ Red flag: a bid that is far below others with no explanation of how.

Precision exploration drilling on site: keeping holes on target

Signing a good contractor is half the job. The other half happens at the rig, shift by shift, and it depends on the geologist and the driller treating accuracy as a shared target. Here is what precision exploration drilling looks like once the program is running.

Set-up checks at every collar

Before the first rod turns, the geologist or field technician should confirm the collar position against the plan, then check the rig’s azimuth and dip with a compass, clinometer or rig-alignment tool. A hole that starts two degrees off can miss a narrow target by metres at depth. Record the set-up values on the shift report so any drift can be traced back to its start.

Survey early, survey often

The CIM guidelines suggest that an orientation study, testing how deviation accuracy changes with survey spacing, can set the right interval once a discovery is made. Early in a program, surveying the first holes more often tells you how the ground bends them. If holes swing consistently, the geologist can offset the collar or the dip of later holes to compensate. That feedback loop is the heart of precision exploration drilling, and it only works if survey results reach the geologist the same day.

Directional and wedge options

When a deep hole misses, or when you want several pierce points on a target from one parent hole, directional drilling and wedges can branch new holes off the old one. This saves re-drilling the upper part of the hole and can be the cheaper way to test a deep target. Ask bidders whether they own the tools and have crews trained to use them, rather than subcontracting at short notice.

Measure the contractor during the job

• Metres per shift against the bid assumption, by hole and depth band.
• Core recovery by run, with reasons logged for any loss.
• Standby hours and who caused them, reconciled weekly.
• Deviation between planned and surveyed hole traces.
• Sample quality issues such as wet RC samples or contamination.

Share those numbers with the contractor every week. Most crews respond well to clear, fair measurement, and it gives you the evidence to renegotiate or change firms between phases if precision exploration drilling standards slip. It also builds the drilling record a technical reviewer or buyer will later ask to see.

Reading a drilling quote line by line

A drilling quote is a list of unit rates. The per-metre rate gets attention, but the other lines decide the total. Novo Resources’ drilling glossary quotes base rates of $12–20 per metre for RAB, $18–30 for aircore, $30–55 for RC and $110–250 for diamond core, and warns that consumables, poor penetration, standby, mobilisation and water cartage often double the final figure. Neither the currency nor a date is given, so use it for proportions, not pricing.

A public benchmark for all-in rates

Newfoundland and Labrador publishes a maximum allowable cost schedule for its mineral incentive rebates. It caps diamond drilling at $200 per metre all-in, including standby, moves and consumables, and lists $25 per metre for downhole geophysics, $70 per geochemical analysis and $900 per day for a professional geologist. Rebates are paid on actual verified costs, not the caps. It is not a price list, but it is a useful reality check for an all-in diamond quote in that jurisdiction; the schedule is undated, so check the current one.

The break-even line is the useful one. A bid with a higher metre rate but low fixed charges often wins short programs, while a low metre rate with heavy mobilisation wins long ones. If your program might be cut after the first holes, weight the short-program result.

Where to find drilling and exploration companies by country

Searching “drilling and exploration companies near me” returns directories and adverts. Industry associations and regulators’ registers are better starting points because they carry some check on who is listed.

Canadian diamond drilling companies and BC contractors

The Canadian Diamond Drilling Association, based in North Bay, Ontario, runs a member directory, training, a job portal and an annual convention, and says a strong membership gives the industry a united voice with government. Its site displayed 24 member companies when we checked; the number changes. For projects in British Columbia, remember that the province’s Mines Act permitting applies to most mechanical exploration disturbance, so ask BC diamond drilling companies how they support Notice of Work conditions on pads, water and reclamation.

Ontario’s permit guide explains why rig size matters to paperwork: a drill heavier than 150 kilograms needs an exploration permit, and a typical pad is 20 to 40 metres across, or 40 to 50 metres for helicopter-supported drilling. A contractor used to heli-portable work in the Canadian Shield will plan pads, slinging and water very differently from a truck-mounted RC crew.

Australia

The Australian Drilling Industry Association runs training, handles driller licence exams and keeps a searchable directory of accredited drillers and member companies. Western Australia has a deep pool of RC and aircore contractors. One of them is Precision Exploration Drilling (PXD), a privately owned exploration contractor whose website lists a Canning Vale head office with offices in Newman and Mount Magnet, and says it can work anywhere in Australia, including remote sites. We have not worked with PXD and make no claim about its services beyond what its site states.

Mining drilling companies in Ghana and West Africa

In Ghana, mine support service providers register with the Minerals Commission. Its support service register lists drilling firms such as Geodrill Ghana Limited and Orbit Garant Drilling Ghana Limited with Class A support service permits marked valid when we checked. Ask any contractor proposing work in Ghana for its current registration. Geodrill’s own site lists bases in Kumasi, Bouaké, Sukari and Dakar and operations in Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Senegal, Peru and Chile.

South Africa and elsewhere

In South Africa and other markets, start with the national drilling or mining contractors’ association where one exists, the regulator’s requirements for your licence, and references from explorers who have drilled similar ground recently. Wherever you are, ask for the safety record, insurance certificates, rig list with ages and a named site supervisor.

Running the tender: from scope to mobilisation

Mining drilling companies price risk. A vague scope makes every bidder add contingency, and the lowest price then comes from whoever guessed most optimistically. A clear scope gives you comparable bids and fewer disputes.

What goes in the scope

• Hole list: number, planned depth, azimuth and dip for each hole.
• Method and size: for example RC precollars with HQ or NQ diamond tails.
• Data requirements: survey tool and interval, core orientation, recovery targets.
• Site conditions: access, water sources, seasonal limits, permit conditions.
• Who supplies what: pads, water, fuel, camp, sample bags, core trays.
• Reporting: daily shift reports and a weekly reconciliation.

For a geological partner who can write that scope and supervise the rig, see our guide to choosing mining consultants. If the drilling is feeding a study, our mining feasibility study steps explain what data later stages will expect.

Funding that can change the tender

Government co-funding can shift what you drill. Western Australia’s Co-funded Exploration Drilling Program refunds up to 50% of direct drilling costs for successful applicants, with rounds opening on the first Monday of February and August. The program’s caps sheet sets maximum refunds by category.

Precision exploration drilling starts before the rig: targeting

The best contractor cannot fix a badly chosen target. Precision exploration drilling depends on knowing where to drill and why, and every hole that tests a weak target is money a contractor was paid to spend in the wrong place.

Our satellite-based mineral detection screens the whole licence first. We analyse multispectral and hyperspectral imagery to flag mineralised target zones, alteration halos, faults and fractures, with no ground disturbance. Send coordinates, a KML/KMZ file or a polygon plus the country and target mineral; delivery takes 5 to 20 business days depending on area and mineral complexity. Read more in our guide to mineral exploration.

• 📊 Premium mineral-intelligence report: high-potential zones, prospectivity heatmaps, estimated location and depth ranges and geological interpretation, as PDF plus GIS files your contractor can load.
• 📊 Premium+ with TargetMax™ Drilling Intelligence: drilling-angle recommendations aimed at a higher ore-intersection probability and interactive 3D subsurface models.
• Economics: early exploration from months to days, at up to 80–85% lower early-exploration cost.
• Experience: 100,000+ hectares scanned, 20+ mineral types, 25+ countries.
• ⚠ What we are not: a drilling contractor or a broker of drilling services. Our targets are exploration targets; drilling confirms them.

Explore a sample of satellite-driven 3D mineral prospectivity mapping, draw your licence on mining.farmonaut.com: Map Your Mining Site, or ask for pricing on the mining query form.

Questions for the reference call

References are only useful if you ask specific questions. Call a geologist who supervised the contractor’s rigs within the last two years, ideally in similar ground, and ask:

• Did the metres per shift match the bid, and if not, why?
• How did the crew handle broken ground and lost circulation?
• Were survey results and shift reports delivered on time and complete?
• How were standby disputes settled?
• Would you hire the same crew and site supervisor again?

The last question is the most revealing. Contractors differ, but crews within one contractor differ even more, so ask which supervisor and drillers the firm intends to send and whether they are named in the contract.

Mistakes that cost the most

1. Choosing on metre rate alone, then paying for standby and moves.
2. No survey or recovery requirement in the contract, so accuracy is nobody’s job.
3. Mobilising before permits, water and access are confirmed.
4. Letting the rig run without a geologist checking holes against the section.
5. Drilling targets that a desk study or satellite screen would have ruled out.

“In Ontario, any drill heavier than 150 kilograms needs an exploration permit before it turns.”

Frequently asked questions

Reviewed September 2026 against the CIM Mineral Exploration Best Practice Guidelines (2018), the JORC Code (2012) Table 1, Ontario’s Early Exploration Permit Activity Information guide, Newfoundland and Labrador’s maximum allowable cost schedule, Western Australia’s Co-funded Exploration Drilling Program pages and caps sheet, Novo Resources’ drilling costs glossary, the Ghana Minerals Commission support service register, and the websites of the CDDA, ADIA, Major Drilling, Geodrill and Precision Exploration Drilling.

Company names are given as examples from public sources, not endorsements; we have no partnership with any contractor named. Rates, caps and register entries change, so confirm them before you rely on them.