GEOPS was founded in 2004 by Vasil Andreev – a drilling engineer with over 35 years of experience in the field. In 2024, the company celebrates a 20-year anniversary.
After 20 years of dynamic development, GEOPS has become one of the largest providers of mineral exploration drilling services in Eastern and Central Europe. The company has 45 drilling rigs, with capacities ranging from 5 to 90 tonnes of pull pack, covering the entire range of drilling services required for mining from greenfield to blackfield.
By continually investing in personnel, equipment and new technologies, while maintaining the highest standards in safety and environmental performance, GEOPS is the preferred drilling contractor for the region’s largest companies, such as Rio Tinto, Free Port, Zijin Mining, Dundee Precious Metals and many others.
Twenty years of dedication
From the idea and conception, through the growth and strengthening, until the strong market position, GEOPS’ major customers have been supporting the company. The exceptional requirements for safe work, environmental protection and quality of work gave the company the best standards and practices and trained the company’s staff. Continuously expanding knowledge and skills made GEOPS the partner of choice.
GEOPS understands its responsibilities in the two-way relationship with customers and the current market conditions and strives to cover them impeccably.
Mr Andreev is thankful to all of the company’s clients and employees for being a part of GEOPS’ history, present and future.
Operations
GEOPS’ headquarters are based near Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The company also operates through established subsidiaries in six other countries. While its main operations are in Europe – mainly in the Balkans and Central Europe – GEOPS has also successfully completed large-scale projects in Tunisia and Kazakhstan. The company has drilled millions of meters since its establishment.
Employees
The true backbone of any successful organization lies in its people. Currently, GEOPS has more than 430 employees. The company believes that placing employees at the center of organizational strategies is not just beneficial but essential for long-term success.
GEOPS employees have many years of experience and most of them have been working for the company for more than ten years. Exploration crews mobilize quickly and consistently deliver what exploration projects need: accurate drilling, quality samples and drilling programs executed on time.
Fleet
GEOPS has more than 45 drill rigs suitable for surface exploration drilling, underground and multipurpose. The company has been continuously developing its surface drilling infrastructure and currently, the surface fleet consists of over 35 rigs made by Sandvik and Epiroc that can drill down to 2500 m (8202 ft). The underground drill rig division consists of eight rigs, which are perfect for both exploration and geotechnical tasks, for drilling deep holes, as the compact design of each rig makes it easy to maneuver. These underground rigs are equipped with a unique, versatile, and easy-to-use positioner for drilling in any direction.
GEOPS is also producing small portable drill rigs suitable for specific projects.
For multipurpose and geotechnical drilling, GEOPS’ multipurpose division is the finest. Powerful, extremely efficient and professionally handled, these machines are made for the most challenging tasks.
In addition, the fleet currently consists of a large variety of auxiliary equipment, such as a cementing unit, mud systems, BOP, high-pressure water pumps, generators, compressors, etc.
Projects
Copper shale exploration, Poland
Since 2012, GEOPS has been working on the exploration of Copper shale deposits in Poland for Amarante Investment and Miedzi Copper. The challenge here is that wireline diamond core drilling at depths
of up to 2500 m (8202 ft) is being carried out in conditions at risk of high-pressure oil and gas ingress (including hydrogen sulphide).
For the successful execution of the projects, GEOPS created a hybrid technology that combines the standard oil and gas drilling with wireline core drilling. For holes over 1500 m (4921 ft), the drillers use a Schramm TXD drilling rig with 90 tonnes of pullback capacity. For those up to 1500 m, they utilize an Epiroc CT 20 rig.
To implement this hybrid technology, a number of facilities have been designed, manufactured and certified at the GEOPS workshop including: a sub base for the Epiroc CT 20 which allows the installation of a full stack BOP under the machine and above the ground; a core winch with a stacker and a capacity of 3000 m (9843 ft) of with an 8 mm rope (0.32 in); a mud system, etc.
Over the years, GEOPS has completed hundreds of exploration holes on this project, thanks to its vast experience, engineering potential and production capacity, which have enabled the company to offer a suitable technical solution at a competitive price.
Directional drilling, Chelopech Gold Mine, Bulgaria
Since 2006, Dundee Precious Metals has been one of GEOPS’ most important customers. Over the years, the company has conducted exploration, hydrogeological, geotechnical and operational drilling above and below ground.
In 2023, at the Chelopech Gold Mine, in Bulgaria, as part of a major exploration program that commenced in 2019, the company had to complete a multilateral directional drill hole and reached targets bypassing the existing underground mine. One of GEOPS’ most experienced teams on drill rig DE880-1 was charged with the task.
The mother hole started in P-size on inclination -75° and azimuth of 350° and after a long section of directional drilling, it ended with N-size at inclination -49° and azimuth of 2° at a total length of 2324.2 m (7625.33 ft). The daughter hole was started in H-size from 650 m (2133 ft) and after an additional section of directional drilling was completed, it was ended with N-size at -30° and azimuth of 15°. Its total length was exactly 1989 m (6525.59 ft).
This is probably one of the most difficult, most deviated and longest mineral exploration drillholes in the Balkans.
Lithium exploration, Zinwald, Germany
In 2017, GEOPS began its first project on the territory of Germany, for Deutsche Lithium within the Zinnwald area laying the foundations for a successful business in the country.
In 2022, GEOPS was contracted again for an expanded drilling program. Over the course of the project, which spanned between July 2022 and October 2023, GEOPS successfully drilled a total of 29 400 m (96 457 ft) with P-, H- and N-size diameters at depths ranging between 200 and 600 m (656-1969 ft). At certain stages, GEOPS operated with six drill rigs simultaneously and did not take a break during the tough winter conditions of this mountain region.
GEOPS coped very well with the project-specific challenges of operating in an environmentally protected but also populated area, where very often drilling had to be carried out only a few meters away from the nearest houses. The drilling crews set up mobile noise protection barriers on most of the drill sites, to avoid disturbing the peace within the village.
In addition, many of the sites were located on agricultural lands and protected grass meadows. Temporary access roads were built to protect the soil while moving the equipment and during the operations. GEOPS performed well on the client’s primary concern of drilling within a populated area, keeping social sentiment positive.
Helping Central Europe to develop the critical materials, alongside the Zinnwald Lithium project, GEOPS also executed successful exploration campaigns for the lithium project of European Lithium in Wolfsberg, Austria, the silver project near Freiberg for Saxony Silver and some other small projects.
Large-diameter core drilling
In August 2018, GEOPS was challenged to execute a large-core drilling program for a major mining company. This program was part of one of their long-term projects in the Balkans. The scope of work demanded one borehole at 444 mm (17.48 in) in diameter and 292 mm (11.5 in) of core to be conducted to a depth of 623 m (2044 ft).
No suitable equipment was found on the market, so GEOPS designed and produced something that would accomplish the goal.
The final result was a triple-tube conventional core barrel with an outer diameter of 444 mm that would collect 3 m (9.84 ft) of the 292 mm diameter core. When empty, the core barrel weighted 1500 kg (3307 lb) and when full, 1800 kg (3968 lb). A special drill bit design with diamond inserts was devised for the job.
Atlas Copco’s RD20IIIXC drill with a pull-back capacity of 50 tonnes was required to complete the job successfully. A special drilling mud system of 40 m3 was designed and provided by GEOPS, with two duplex mud pumps NB125 and two 220 kVA generators to supply the necessary power.
By choosing the 444 mm drilling diameter, the team could switch from mud rotary to core drilling without involving any additional operations, like casing and reaming. This way, the core could be extracted at any desired interval of mineralization and that was very valuable and cost-efficient for the client. To cover the overburden a 473.07 mm (18.63 in) casing was installed to a depth of 50 m (164 ft).
The first series of large-diameter conventional drilling started at 293 m (961 ft) and was finished off by the geologists to a depth of 335 m (1099 ft). From 335 to 480 m (1099 to 1575 ft) mud rotary drilling was used with the same 444 mm diameter drill bit and then from 480 m coring was begun again until the end of the hole at 623 m (2044 ft). A total length of 185 m (607 ft) core with a volume of 12.4 m3 was recovered, weighing approximately 37 tonnes.
The mud rotary drilling was as fast as usual, and the production from the section of coring was around 12 and 6 m (39 and 20 ft), at shallower and deeper sections respectively. Core recovery of more than 95% was achieved. At the depth of 600 m (1969 ft), the core breaking force reached 28 tonnes (pull-out).
The biggest challenges faced by the company were using a prototype on-site and achieving a high percentage of core recovery. Despite such obstacles and the particular geology, complicated even for wireline drilling, all goals were met.
Drilling was carried out in accordance with the requirements and safety standards of the client and with zero incidents.
Looking into the future
GEOPS continuously invests its resources to develop and implement new technologies. The company is working particularly hard to equip all its drill rigs with a mud-recirculating system and hands-free pipe handlers. GEOPS is also exploring new geographical markets and forming strategic partnerships to increase its global presence and client base.
