A drilling contractor and a geologist walk into a bar….but only one drink is ordered. What’s wrong with this story?

Nothing at all, because you’d probably be looking at James Buchanan: geologist turned drilling entrepreneur who travelled across the globe to build what is now a leading edge drilling and survey business on the back of a single auger rig and a dream.

So how did a geologist from Ireland find himself in the red dirt of Kalgoorlie - and what was the secret to success behind his company, Gyro Drilling - a thriving drilling business that stands apart from the crowd in WA’s competitive drilling industry?

A new opportunity

James started out as a geo working offshore in the Norwegian Oil & Gas industry based in the Arctic Circle, but once the industry went bust one too many times for his liking, he knew it was time for a change. An offhand comment from another geo sparked his interest in pursuing an opportunity in Australia, this time, in the hard rock minerals industry. And so he packed his bags and headed for Perth, where he soon learned that Kalgoorlie was the place to be.

After spending the better part of a decade in and around Kalgoorlie as a geo, and then opening up his own surveying business, Gyro Australia, James had observed a clear gap in the drilling services market. Many drilling businesses were focused on using heavy-duty drill rigs, which are fantastic when you think you’re onto something, but incredibly expensive and inefficient to use in first-pass exploration.

James knew that smaller rigs could provide early-stage exploration teams with a more cost-effective and flexible solution perfectly suited to drilling the upper weathered ground in Western Australia. And so he risked it all to buy his first slimline aircore RC rig from a friend. It just so happened at this time that the demand began to surge for gold, base metals, and more recently, rare earth metals found in upper clays, which could be found in conditions perfectly suited to lightweight aircore and RC rigs.

Naturally, the favourable market conditions ensured that the company, now known as Gyro Drilling, quickly found itself at the forefront of the exploration race.

Growing pains

Such was the demand for Gyro’s services that the business grew to a fleet of 10 rigs just over a decade later. But with all this growth, the team were finding that they had outgrown their pen-and-paper workflow.

"Continuing to work on paper wouldn’t be sustainable if we wanted to keep growing and improving."

“No joke, we were literally on the verge of breaking”, says James. “The old-school geologist in me was hesitant to give up paper reporting at first. Everyone else was still using it. But we knew we needed to do something different... Our wheels were close to falling off and we didn’t want our clients to feel the impact.”

Getting inside the minds of clients

“Of course, any change we made would have an impact on our clients as well,” says James. “From our perspective, we’re always focused on streamlining our services and value adding to our growing client base.”

James’ geology background gave him unique insight into what geologists value beyond what most drillers would experience day to day at the rig. He knew that what really drove geologists to pursue discovery was figuring out what was under the ground, to "let the drill bit do the talking." But instead, they were spending their time trying to figure out what he refers to as “drillers’ hieroglyphics”.

“Understanding drillers’ hieroglyphics isn’t just a problem for clients. It’s something many drilling contractors struggle with too, and it was certainly a challenge for us” laments James.

“And yes, we could fix it by talking to the drillers, but it delays how fast we can get the drilling data to the client. Geologists need to be able to read, understand and sign off on the daily drilling parameters. It’s an absolute essential requirement of the job.”

"This is ultimately what drove us to take up using CorePlan. We were having to interpret too many different forms of driller hieroglyphics from all 10 of our rigs. We wanted a way to capture our data and deliver it cleanly and uniformly to the client."

James Bunchanan, Founder and Managing Director

Owning the hole data

Today, Gyro has CorePlan sitting on every rig for every client. An achievement that James cites as being “essential to delivering a seamless client service.”

“Our goal has always been to be able to provide our clients with a full-circle service that deeply connects drilling and geology.”

“We’ve worked on so many projects over the years that we’ve drilled pretty much the whole of WA at this point. Unlike exploration teams who focus deeply on one area, we’ve had the chance to go just about everywhere. This has given us an amazing opportunity to deeply understand the geology of surrounding tenements, which helps us provide strategic guidance to our clients.”

Gyro’s unique expertise in understanding the ground helps them open up new and improved exploration opportunities from the rig.

“What we do is absolutely unique. No one else is doing it. Only Gyro can peg it, map it, target it, drill it, deliver samples to the lab, interpret samples, and write up the project report ready to be submitted to the ASX. We have the data to support what we do to build that transparency and trust along the way. For clients, this is perfect, because all they need to do is sit back and watch the share price go up!”

"CorePlan is essential to delivering a seamless client service. But not only this, embracing technology like CorePlan has meant that we have streamlined the essential."

James Bunchanan, Founder and Managing Director

What’s next for Gyro?

James Buchanan's journey from geologist to entrepreneur has been nothing short of remarkable. Through his geology expertise, understanding of client needs, and adoption of innovative technologies like CorePlan, he transformed Gyro Drilling from a one-rig band into a leading force in the drilling industry.

As the Gyro team moves forward into a digital future, their focus remains on delivering exceptional service and remaining at the forefront of exploration advancements, solidifying their position as an indispensable partner for geologists and mining companies alike.