{"id":10383,"date":"2026-11-02T18:42:42","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T15:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/terra-drone.com.sa\/?p=10383"},"modified":"2026-11-02T18:42:42","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T15:42:42","slug":"mining-exploration-with-rtk-gnss-accurate-drill-holes-in-saudi-arabia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/terra-drone.com.sa\/ar\/mining-exploration-with-rtk-gnss-accurate-drill-holes-in-saudi-arabia\/","title":{"rendered":"Mining Exploration with RTK GNSS: Accurate Drill Holes in Saudi Arabia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saudi Arabia’s mining exploration has moved from maps and plans to rigs on the ground. In the space of a single year, the number of projects with a drill turning in the Kingdom almost tripled.<\/span> S&P Global Market Intelligence reports<\/span><\/a> that 160 projects were drilled in Saudi Arabia in 2024, up from 58 in 2023. The same<\/span> S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis<\/span><\/a> shows that the Kingdom’s minesite exploration budget, which covers work at and around existing mines, reached SAR 548 million in 2025, up from SAR 79 million in 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n

Behind those figures sit thousands of individual drill holes. Every one of them starts at a single point on the ground, the collar, and every one of them needs to be in the right place. A drill hole set up a few metres off its planned position can miss a narrow vein, skew a geological model or force a costly redrill. When a drilling program grows from dozens of holes to hundreds, those small errors stop being small.<\/span><\/p>\n

This article looks at why drill hole collar accuracy matters more than ever in Saudi Arabia, and how RTK GNSS makes precise exploration surveys practical on remote sites. We walk through a simple three-step workflow, from staking a planned collar to handing clean coordinates to the geology team. We also cover how to plan collar surveys around the Kingdom’s summer heat and its midday work ban, so crews stay safe and programs stay on schedule.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why Now: Saudi Arabia’s Mining Exploration Boom<\/b><\/h2>\n

Mining is one of the pillars of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan to diversify the economy beyond oil. For years, that ambition lived mostly in strategy documents. Today, it shows up clearly in the licensing data.<\/span><\/p>\n

In its ninth licensing round, Saudi Arabia awarded 172 mining sites across three mineral-rich belts, according to<\/span> S&P Global Market Intelligence<\/span><\/a>.<\/span> Argaam reports<\/span><\/a> that 24 companies and consortia won the exploration licenses in that round. Winners pledged about SAR 671 million, and<\/span> S&P Global Market Intelligence<\/span><\/a> calls it the largest licensing round in the country’s history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each of those licenses comes with work commitments. New license holders need to map their ground, sample it and, sooner or later, drill it. That means the jump in drilled projects that<\/span> S&P Global Market Intelligence recorded<\/span><\/a> between 2023 and 2024 is unlikely to be a one-off peak. It looks more like the start of a sustained drilling cycle.<\/span><\/p>\n

For exploration managers, this creates a capacity question. Rigs, geologists and assay labs get most of the attention, but survey capacity has to keep pace too. Every planned hole must be staked before the rig arrives, and every completed hole must be picked up before the pad is cleared. When survey crews fall behind, rigs wait, data arrives late and errors creep in as teams rush to catch up.<\/span><\/p>\n

The companies that handle this boom well will be the ones that treat the exploration survey as part of the drilling program from day one, not as an afterthought.<\/span><\/p>\n

What Is a Drill Hole Collar Survey?<\/b><\/h2>\n

The collar is the point where a drill hole meets the ground surface. It is the starting point for everything the hole tells you. Downhole survey tools record the hole’s direction and dip as it goes deeper, but those readings are relative. Without an accurate collar position, there is nothing to anchor them to.<\/span><\/p>\n

A collar survey has two jobs:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Before drilling:<\/b> stake out the planned collar, so the rig sets up where the geologists designed the hole.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. After drilling:<\/b> pick up the as-drilled collar, recording where the hole actually entered the ground.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    For each hole, the survey records easting, northing and elevation, tied to the hole ID and the project’s agreed coordinate system. Many teams also log the survey date, the instrument used and a photo of the collar marker, so anyone checking the data later can trace each point back to the field.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Collar surveying is one part of a wider exploration survey. The same field teams often map topography, set out drill pads and access tracks, and establish ground control for drone or airborne surveys. Of all these tasks, the collars have the most direct link to the geological model, which is why they deserve a clear process of their own.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Why Collar Accuracy Matters<\/b><\/h2>\n
    \"Cross-section
    A collar a few metres off design can turn a planned intercept into a miss.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    Drilling is the most expensive part of most exploration programs, and it is billed by the metre. Published drilling prices for Saudi Arabia are hard to find, so Australian data offers a useful reference point for the scale of the cost.<\/span> IBISWorld forecasts<\/span><\/a> greenfield drilling prices in Australia at AUD 438.47 a metre in 2025-26, about SAR 1,144 a metre. For brownfield work around known deposits,<\/span> IBISWorld’s brownfield forecast<\/span><\/a> works out at about SAR 975 a metre.<\/span><\/p>\n

    These are Australian prices, not Saudi ones, but they show what is at stake. Take a 200 m hole as an example: at the<\/span> IBISWorld greenfield rate<\/span><\/a>, that single hole would cost about SAR 229,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Now consider what happens when a collar is in the wrong place. If the rig sets up several metres off design, the hole may pass beside a narrow vein instead of through it. If the as-drilled position is recorded wrongly, every intercept along the hole shifts in the model by the same amount. In both cases, the company has paid full price for a hole that answers the wrong question.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The costs compound from there. A missed target may need a redrill. A mispositioned intercept can distort how grades are interpolated between holes, inflating or understating a resource. Errors found late, during resource estimation or an audit, are slow and expensive to trace back to the field, especially once pads have been rehabilitated and markers removed.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Accuracy also matters for credibility. Resource estimates reported to investors and regulators are expected to rest on reliable data, and collar positions are among the first things a competent person or auditor will check.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The good news is that collar accuracy is one of the cheapest risks in exploration to control. Compared with the cost of the hole itself, a precise survey is a small line item, and that is where RTK GNSS comes in.<\/span><\/p>\n

    How RTK GNSS Supports Exploration Surveys<\/b><\/h2>\n
    \"RTK
    The base station sends real-time corrections so the rover can fix collar positions to centimetre level.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    RTK GNSS (Real-Time Kinematic Global Navigation Satellite System) is the standard tool for fast, precise positioning on exploration sites. A base station sits on a known point and tracks satellites continuously. It sends corrections to a rover receiver carried by the surveyor. Using those corrections in real time, the rover can fix a position to centimetre-level accuracy within seconds.<\/span><\/p>\n

    For mining exploration in Saudi Arabia, RTK GNSS has several practical advantages:<\/span><\/p>\n