A new device from Curtin University could drastically slash the cost of mineral exploration drilling.

Australian research engineers have developed a new coiled tube drilling rig, adapting an old design for use in hard-rock situations.

Project leader Professor Brian Evans from Curtin’s Department of Petroleum Engineering said the new rig can drill boreholes for just $50 per metre, and requires just two people to run.

The current version of the rig is part of a project to increase hard-rock drilling speeds from 50rpm to 7000rpm.

“Coiled tube drilling rigs have been used in the oil and gas industry for the last 40 years to clean up existing boreholes and they are quick because they are continuously drilling - they don’t need rod changes,” Dr Evans said.

“We are adapting these coiled tube drilling rigs to be used for hard-rock mineral drilling by replacing the steel drill pipe with flexible coiled tubing, and working on embedding sensors and electronic chips in the composite laminate tube, so logging can be done in real time.

“We’ve also decreased the borehole size, because by drilling continuously with small, low-cost impregnated diamond bits and increasing the speed, we are hoping to increase the rate of penetration substantially.”

A prototype rig was demonstrated at the Brukunga Drilling Research and Training facility in the Adelaide Hills last week.

It was developed in partnership with the CSIRO, University of Adelaide and the Deep Exploration Technologies Cooperative research Centre (DETCRC), the same place that the prototype of the world's first coiled tubing drill rig was launched last year.