In Surpac 2024 there is now the ability to plan drillholes. In this tip and trick, we will look at the different methods of drill hole planning.

Drillhole Planning on section from the Surface: Create One Drillhole. 

• Open up the wireframes that are to be used for drillhole planning.
• Create a set of Planes.
• Set the plane that drilling is to be planned on.
• Draw triangles as polylines.

• Design > Drillhole Design > Create Drillhole. 

• Select the “single” option.
• Enter the name of the drillhole. 
• Press the “select collar” button and click on the location of the collar. 
• Enter in the northing, azimuth, dip and length of the drillhole.
• Press the “create” button and close the form.

A single hole will be created in the layer called “Drill Hole Layer.”
 

Drillhole Planning on Section from Surface: Create Several Holes at Set Distances 

If several holes are to be created on this section, then a single hole must be created first.

• Then reactivate the function and select “multiple.”
• Use the drop down arrow and select the Drillhole Name that was previously used. The “Prefex” will automatically be created.
• Select the Parallel option. 
• Enter in the azimuth, distance between collars and the number of holes to be created. The Dip and Length are copied from the previous hole. 
• Press the “Create button”, then close the form. You will see all the holes have been created.

• The drillholes will be created in a layer called “Drillhole Layer.”
• Save this string file. If you IP the collar, you will see: 
  • D1-Hole ID
  • D2-Dip
  • D3-Azimuth
  • D4-Depth
     

Drillhole Planning on Section from Underground Drill Cuddy: Create One Drillhole

• Open up the development with the drill cuddy and the string file with the ore intercept points required.

• Create a Plane for the section where the drill cuddy is.

• Design > Drillhole Design > Create Drillhole. 
• Select the “single” option. 
• Enter the name of the drillhole.  
• Press the “select collar” button and click on the location of the collar. 
• Press the “select toe” button and click on the location of the ore intercept.
• Round off dip, azimuth and length if required. 
• Press the “create” button and close the form. 

Drillhole Planning on Section from Underground: Create Multiple Drillholes from the Same Collar Co-ordinates as the Single Hole.

There are 3 different methods you can choose.

1/ Cone/fan by Horizontal Increment:

• Create the first single drillhole following the steps  described in the "Create One Drillhole" section above. 
  It needs to be the most northerly hole.
• Select cone or fan. 
• Enter in the horizontal increment. This is the horizontal angle increment between the holes. 
• Enter in the number of drillholes to be created. 

NOTE: The holes are created at a set length. Holes can be extended to the ore which is covered in steps "Extending holes to dtm/solids"
 

2/ Cone/fan by Toe Distance method: 

• Work out the distance between the toes. 
• Select the distance method, and enter in the toe distance and number of holes to create.

 3/ Cone/fan by Toe Angle method: 

• Enter in the angle increment of the holes. 
• Enter in the number of holes to be created. 

Extending holes to dtm/solids.

When using this function, the planned drillholes MUST be in the layer called “drillhole layer”

You have the ability to extend holes to a dtm/solid.

Clipping holes to dtm/solids/RL

NOTE: this function is to clip toes, NOT collars.

• Clipping the toes to a set RL.

• Clipping the toes with a dtm or a solid.

Loading Planned Drillholes into Planning Database

You can then load the drillholes up into a Planning Drillhole Database. Remember, in Geovia Surpac 2024 you can open 2 or more drillhole databases.

• To load the drillholes into the planning database, make sure the working layer is “drillhole planning”. The holes MUST have been created via the Drillhole Design function. 

• Select the drillhole database and apply.