They should hire it out because people are so desperate that they will take anything that drives and drills! The point I was making is that it would be suitable for a multi-rig program, or a small exploration program, but that proving up a large enough JORC resource to make a buyer take interest is probably beyond it unless they hire more rigs from external sources. Which they may do - I know they've had both Mitchell's and JD rigs at Chinchilla in the past.
Suffice to say I was around when the rig was bought and in close contact with the man who bought it for Linc. It was very old and very cheap. Certain people in the industry were laughing at Linc for getting ripped off - old drillers knew the guy who'd sold it, and many of them knew the exact rig too. I have drilled on the Chinchilla site (not with that rig) and I know very well the geologist who did drill on that rig at Chinchilla.
In my personal opinion they would have been better with a bigger HQ rig. But don't get me wrong - the rig they have is fine. It's a table drive and runs only on air. That's okay, but it's pushing the limits of the rig to drill to 300m+. That's why I personally would have gone for an HQ. It also makes coring MUCH faster, particularly when you're down 200m+.
I notice they seem to use the contractor JD rig for coring. Whether that says anything about the Linc rig I don't know.
But all things considered, I think Linc would have been prudent to speak to some geologists and drillers about the type of geology they were drilling before they bought a rig.
None of this information is sensitive or confidential, by the way. Most of it you can find on Linc's own website in the photos section, if you know what you're looking at. The stuff about the origin of the rig is public knowledge in the Queensland drilling community, I'm not telling any secrets. And the comments about what type of rig they should have bought are my own personal opinion.
As always, DYOR.
Cheers,
psi81
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