Longhole Drilling Raises Successful At Holden

THE first trial of longhole drilling of raises began in June 1949 at the Holden mine, Chelan Div., Howe Sound Co. The cost of this raise was about the same as the average cost of raising by normal methods which was sufficiently encouraging to give the method further trial. At Holden, the Noranda method of blasthole drilling is used except that percussion drills have replaced diamond drills for making blastholes in all but certain special situations. Two thirds of these holes are between 40 and 70 ft long.