EQUIPMENT
Based on decades of experience and an ongoing commitment to equipment development GeoCoastal have a range of specialised continuous coring equipment that is unrivalled worldwide in both its penetration capability, and its sophistication in representative core.The case studies below illustrate our ability to tailor successful solutions to seemingly improbable project objectives.
"We don't mind if you give other coring contractors a go - they're at least 15 years behind us, and someone has to pay them to learn, but if you have a serious coring challenge then the right equipment and experience really counts"
Amphibious Excavator
A client was confronted with an almost 'perfect storm' of impossible coring challenges: 1. core in a fluid reclamation pond where conventional aqueous vessels cannot operate, nor can all-terrain-vehicles 2. recover representative cores in sediments ranging from highly fluidised silt, to stiff clay and gravel 3. recover this representative core to 12m.
Items 2 and 3 which would normally be a challenge to conventional coring systems did not faze us - we have the sophistication and technology to core to this sort of depth 'in our sleep'. Item 1 was a bit more challenging, but with a bit of modification we set up a coring capacity on our amphibious excavator and completed the job ahead of time and without incident.
Barges: Seabed Investigator & Crab
A gold mining company had been using a former open cut to dipose of tailings and after a change of ownership now needed to remove them.The challenge was to recover reliable, representative core to approximately 30m sub-bed, in wate depths of ~20m for assay. The actual sediment was the final product after it had been through a ball-mill so was well-sorted, angular rock fragments. Getting equipment on the pond was also challenging.
GeoCoastal's road transportable, aluminium barge 'Seabed Investigator' was able to be economically mobilised onto the pond. With the combination of this specialised barge, powerful coring capacity, and a range of proprietary coring technology and techniques, we were able to recover continuous core to 32m sub-bed in 20m of water.
GeoCoastal also has a trailerable, specialised coring barge - the 'Crab' for economical programs in confined waterways.
All Terrain Coring
As experienced marine and coastal geologists we know that similar sedimentary sequences to those presently found in marine settings exist under coastal plains and in riverine settings, and therefore lend themselves to the same continuous coring. Getting to some of these locations is the first challenge, and over the years we have managed to pack a powerful deep coring capability into small all-terrain-vehicles that can go extraordinary places such as: tidal flats, swamps, salt lakes, coastal dunes.
When we get there all of the deep coring technology that is GeoCoastal's trademark can then be brought into play.
This equipment is particularly effective for sand resource investigations, but has also been used extensively in road route surveys across alluvial valleys and acid sulfate soil surveys.
