About Us

Aqua Alpha started as a water well drilling company in 1983. Since then the company developed new skills to improve its service offering to its clients. Here are the key milestone dates:

 
  • 1983; water well drilling with air percussion techniques
 
  
  • 1989; water well drilling in sandy soils with mud rotary drilling
 
 
  • 1995; blast hole drilling in coal and platinum reserves
 
  
  • 2007; appointed by Sasol to design and drill underground coal gasification wells
 
  
  • 2008; appointed by BHPBilliton to drill mine service and water quality monitoring wells
 
  
  • 2009; appointed by WildHorse Energy for the design and construction of UCG wells in Europe
 
  
  • 2011; appointed by Seamwell International for the design and construction of UCG wells in China
  
 
  • 2011; appointed by Anglo American for directional drilling exploration of their South African coal mines
  
 
  • 2013; appointed by African Cabon Energy for the design and construction of a range of UCG wells for their Theunissen UCG project in South Africa
 
  
  • 2013; appointed by Exxaro Coal for the horizontal exploration of one of their South African coal mines with directional drilling techniques

 
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Directional Drilling Rig
Hungary UCG Project
China UCG Project
HDPE Casing Installation
BHPBilliton ODEX Drilling
Platinum Blasthole Drilling
Large Diameter Drilling Rig
Achievements of the team members


  • Adapted oil industry directional drilling technology for use in coal exploration 
 
 
 
  • Developed specialized drilling rigs for coal exploration with directional drilling

  • Awarded by the South African Institution of Mechanical Engineering

  • Involved in the drilling of more than 500 000 metres of directional wells in coal seams

  • Achieved several world firsts in directional drilling:

    • 2 164 metre long horizontal well drilled inside a coal seam from surface

 

    • 1 529 metre long horizontal well drilled inside a coal seam from underground

 

    •    893 metre long horizontal well drilled in diamond bearing kimberlite from underground

  • Designed four different injection point retraction (CRIP) systems for underground coal gasification

  • Improved core recovery of sandy and highly tectonized strata from less than 50% to more than 95%