Lake E Daily News, Monday, 13 April, 2009
Today was a big day for us -- will the HQ collect good sediment core?
The OSG group finished down hole logging last night around midnight and the nightshift worked to trip down with the PQ (removed for logging) and then started tripping down most the HQ (smaller diameter) pipe. The dayshift finished that job in the morning and then tried coring by noon. But it became clear that the tools were getting stuck in the pipe part of the way down -- meaning that a few of the HQ had been damaged slightly.
A dent of even a few mms (not much clearance for the tools after all) can be caused by a bulldozer driving over the pipe or something like that. It takes a heck of a lot to dent this stuff. Doug estimates that you need 8,777 lbs/square inch! Luckily we have 900 m of HQ and it appears that only 5 of 190 pieces are damaged. So we have plenty of good pipe.
So they tripped part way out and replaced 2 of the apparently dented pipes. After that the drillers recovered 2 successful drives into the sediment with 105% recovery (3m+ each) due to the expansion of some of the muds. A third drive was zero recovery but we think we know why. So the night crew is now out there seeing what they can do. Sediments in the recovered sections consisted of beautifully laminated muds and fine sand.
We are thrilled that the HQ is working and we are getting mud -- thanks to the core catchers, as well as the drillers. We are using a hard rock bit on the BHA and a modified hard rock core catcher sized to accept fingers to hold sediment back. So we continue into the night. We have started the "Breccia Lotto" with everyone here placing bets as to the depth, day and time we will encounter the breccia. Sorry.... new entries are no longer accepted.
We are also pleased to report that Kinross Mining is willing to sell us 8 tons of drilling mud. Chico in Pevek is doing a great job finding a means of transport.
Dobroy Nochee! Julie BG
