Geotechnical Investigations

Welcome to the July edition of the GeoGroup Newsletter. Over the last few days, South Africans all across the country have felt the brunt of the current political unrest, the impact of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and how it is affecting the economy. At the GeoGroup we are running at maximum capacity to ensure that all our projects are running safely and according ...

On the 27th of February 2021, the Geomech Africa and Terra Monitoring teams commenced work together for a 5-week project where they needed to conduct rotary core drilling (using a YWE-D90) at 6 locations for the installation of Piezometers at discard facilities in Mpumalanga, South Africa.It was the mandate of the project that the Geomech Africa team were to drill the holes whi ...

June 2021 Newsletter Welcome to the June edition of the GeoGroup Newsletter. As we are approaching the 2021 mid-point, it seems that this year is one of those that just flies by. With many projects underway and more to come, we had to recruit more than 15 new staff members in order to meet the demand within the drilling sector. It's a great honour for us to be in a position wh ...

”Probing” into CPTu TestingNorth West Province, South AfricaWHAT IS CPTu TESTING?A cone penetration test with pore water pressure measurement, or CPTu, is a static penetration test with water/pore pressure measurement. While advancing the calibrated probe at a constant advancement rate, the probe records the resistance at the tip (qc), the dynamic pore water pressure (u2) and t ...

Recently, the GeoGroup workshop technicians took on the daunting task of refurbishing a retired XY-44 drill rig. Under the leadership of the Workshop Director, Brett Rossiter, the team decided to do an intensive refurbishment on this rig to get it up and running to meet the demand of projects the group had received in the past few months.Often it isn't financially viable to pur ...

May 2021 Newsletter Welcome to the May edition of the GeoGroup Newsletter. Drilling has always been at the core of the GeoGroup since its establishment in 1989 by the late founder and CEO, Dave Rossiter. We have continued to grow and evolve over the years with new vehicles and rigs regularly being added to our growing fleet. We are thankful for the years of experience we have ...

This long-overdue project, to raise a dam wall in South Africa, finally got underway in late 2019. The project involves the raising of the existing dam wall by building a new wall against the existing wall built in 1935 and extending the height of the wall by 13m. By raising the dam wall, it will increase the capacity of the dam to almost double. Allowing for more irrigation in ...

Over the past couple of months, we have been very busy with the manufacturing and assembly of our new customized CPTu rig specifically designed with stability in mind. Stability, which is a very important factor when conducting CPTu tests where the ground conditions show characteristics of a lower shear strength value or cohesiveness. With our smaller TG63-150 and TG73-200 CPTu ...

April 2021 Newsletter As we head into the second quarter of the year, many of us stand in amazement that it has already been 1 year since the start of the national lockdown. Although many countries around the world are still facing various challenges, we can positively say that having the ability to adapt is an invaluable strength in a personal capacity and when it comes to ru ...

Exploration Drilling is used in the mineral mining sector to probe the contents of known ore deposits or to explore sites for potential geological/commercial value. Exploration drilling allows geologists to extract and examine sample core profiles at the surface with reduced environmental impact and lower costs.The Atlas Copco CS-1500 is a rotary core drill rig used in explorat ...