Ontario’s jackleg drilling champion crowned

This year’s North American Mining Expo in Sudbury featured a new attraction — the inaugural Ontario Jackleg Drilling Competition.

Contestants going for the top prize earlier this month were tasked with safely setting up and dismantling a S250 Secan jackleg drill and collaring and completing two drill holes to a minimum depth of 600 mm, with a centre-to-centre distance of 6 inches. Points were awarded for accuracy and speed.

When the dust settled it was Matt Sandrin who was named the champion with a “record score” of 92. His 108-second effort was the slowest, but his steady hand produced almost perfectly accurate results.

Brian Scott took second place with a record speed of 79 seconds, but fell short on accuracy to finish with 72 points overall. Roger Lamoureux’s effort was also awarded 72 points, but he placed third with a more sluggish 98-second performance.

The top three contestants each received a statuette of an underground jacklegger designed by Sudbury artist Tyler Fauvelle and assorted cash prizes and gifts. 

The event also featured a novice ladies competition, in which Kaitlyn Dunn defeated Tina Pellerin in a playoff winner takes all contest, after the initial event finished in a tie. Tiffany Davis took third place in another tiebreaker with Samantha Frost, who finished fourth. The top-three ladies novice division finishers received cash and gift awards. 

A third team-style competition was held wherein Sudbury mayoral candidates faced off against members of the media. In this contest participants were asked to drill to a distance of 24 inches in hard Canadian Shield boulders. The mayoral candidates narrowly edged out the media players by one point. The average distance drilled for the media team was 28 inches, while the mayoral candidates averaged 27 inches.

The victor of the match was aspiring mayor Jeff Huska, who was awarded a jacklegger statue for reaching a perfect depth of 24 inches. “Now I can really appreciate the work our underground miners in Sudbury perform. It is hard to believe they do this day in and day out,” Huska said in a statement. The top media score was 27 inches, which was earned by CBC Radio host Jason Turnbull.

Aecon Mining (TSX: ARE) sponsored the event, while Boart Longyear (US-OTC: BOARF) provided judges and equipment.