Re: The AI thread
Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2026 6:48 am
A client contracted an AI company to plan drill holes for them. They have 10 permitted drill site and a very deep geophysical target that depending on the black box used to model the geophysics, the anomaly shifts, in some cases a few 100 metres, in 3D space. The contractor used AI to calculate 100's of drill orientations (azimuth, dip, depth) from the permitted drill sites and calculate the odds of hitting the moving target from the various gephysical interpretations. Azimuth is compass direction, dip is angle down (0 dip is horizontal, -90 dip is vertical). They produced a list of holes with azimuth, dip and depth and ranked them based on odds of hitting a geophysical target, as well as the minimal depth that they may intersect that target. The computers ran for a couple of days doing the exercise.
The impracticality of their modelling was they did not account for hole deviation with drilling. Holes will naturally flatten and swing to the right, more so the shallower the dip of the hole. A vertical hole will deviate the least.The amount a hole deviates will vary will rock conditions and how hard the drillers push on the bit. On a 2000 metre deep hole, the bottom of the hole may end up over a 100 metres from where you intended it to be.
One project I managed we were drilling 500 metre deep holes and after three holes I learned that starting the hole with seven degrees less azimuth
I've done similar exercises by hand with maps on a light table or with loading models into 3D GIS software and looking at different scenarios while spinning the 3D model.
If the holes were deeper, they could use wedges and directional drilling to control the hole direction.
The impracticality of their modelling was they did not account for hole deviation with drilling. Holes will naturally flatten and swing to the right, more so the shallower the dip of the hole. A vertical hole will deviate the least.The amount a hole deviates will vary will rock conditions and how hard the drillers push on the bit. On a 2000 metre deep hole, the bottom of the hole may end up over a 100 metres from where you intended it to be.
One project I managed we were drilling 500 metre deep holes and after three holes I learned that starting the hole with seven degrees less azimuth
I've done similar exercises by hand with maps on a light table or with loading models into 3D GIS software and looking at different scenarios while spinning the 3D model.
If the holes were deeper, they could use wedges and directional drilling to control the hole direction.
yeah it's all 'bout holes and ai is for the A.