Achieving lasting excellence in drill-core logging (and securing full returns on drilling investments).

Good Day,
The question: If diamond drilling provides by far the best sample of the subsurface why, when the quality of core data is so critical to informed decision-making, are the loggers on almost all projects newly-graduated geologists and geotechnical engineers? Why are experienced core loggers so hard to find? Could it be due to:

• The drudgery of measuring endless lengths of core, filling in endless logging sheets and enduring endless data capture routines to digitize and validate the logs?
• Inadequate QA/QC, which, combined with little feedback from users of the data, quickly leads to low job satisfaction? 

The solution: Following extensive software development and rigorous trialling via major companies and consultants, Ground Modelling Technologies Ltd now delivers the market-leading photogrammetry-based product for comprehensive imaging, total validation of depth-registration, and structural analysis of drill core. It is also a powerful tool for rapid and accurate re-assessment of archived core.

StereoCore PhotoLog enables the loggers to simply examine the core and concentrate purely on what they are professionally trained for – accurately characterizing the rock both lithologically and structurally. The photogrammetry takes care of all the measurements and:

• Guarantees the accuracy and efficiency of all core recovery and angle measurements.
• Assures Data quality as the annotated image files can be regularly and remotely monitored (regularly transmitted from site), for full visual QC.
• Provides QA auditors with a compete visual record enabling rapid random spot-checks along the core to confidently confirm (or implement corrections to) the exact descriptors logged for each individual feature.

How is this done? It only takes six easy steps:

1. Photos of the core trays (taken with any hand held camera or Windows 10 tablet) are processed to produce orthographic images on which
2. The logger simply tags and describes features using colour-coded data markers (for which full user definition and flexibility is an integral part of the software).
3. A line is then drawn to scale along the segments to depth register the core.
4. The data markers are then ‘snapped’ onto the segment lines to depth reference each feature, following which
5. Ellipses are drawn to match each joint, fracture or vein to auto-measure their alpha/beta angles - and finally
6. The log tables are exported, in Excel or CSV files, to deliver the data for analysis and to model the ground in the shortest time frame possible.

Thus StereoCore PhotoLog rapidly delivers quality controlled data sets that can be confidently analysed and interpreted to establish that all objectives of the drilling program have been attained – even before the drill rig moves offsite – ensuring also a real sense of value and achievement for the loggers. The fully auditable data can be modelled with confidence by geoscientists and engineers responsible ultimately for the development of quality geological models and defendable investment recommendations.
 
​For enquiries, or to request further information and a demonstration please email support@stereocore.net

Yours in logging,
John Orpen