February 2015
Swapping Gold For Water
Known for its geothermal drilling excellence in the gold mining sector, Anitua Radial Drilling Services (ARDS) is now also drilling water bores for government department, Water PNG. General Manager, Tony Collins, says that the six bores they are drilling in the Southern Highlands towns of Pangi and Ialibu (the home town of Prime Minister Peter O’Neill) represent ARDS’s first contracts on the mainland and that there could be many more water bores to be drilled throughout the country.
The Government has commenced an important program of putting clean drinking water into communities throughout PNG over the next two years. The use of water from a bore that is located within the community that will actually use the water is preferable to water from other sources such as rivers as there are no complications associated with ownership and compensation.
The bores will be drilled to an average depth of 60 metres and will take approximately four months to complete. The drilling equipment is already on site having left Lihir on a barge before being transported up the Highlands Highway via Lae. Two staff from ARDS’s Lihir operations are managing the project and are being assisted by several local recruits.
Tony Collins, whilst acknowledging the challenges of having moved both equipment and staff off-shore, as well as operating in a new environment is very positive about the water bore contracts. “Not only do these contracts provide ARDS with the opportunity of expanding our business geographically, they also provide us with the opportunity of expanding our product range and our client base which is absolutely fantastic particularly in the current mining economy” says Tony.
