RipTerra™
High Kinetic Flow Tricone Drill Bit
The bit that clears its own path - faster metres, longer life, less dust, lower cost per metre from the first hole.
Every conventional tricone chokes on its own cuttings. The convex underside - unchanged for 90 years - traps broken rock against the hole bottom and re-grinds it to dust: wasted energy, respirable fines at the collar, faster wear, and a 260–280 m/hr founder point beyond which more pulldown drills slower. Drilling performance, not rig power, sets the cost of every metre.
Confirmed in the field - the choke is removed.
- Concave-profiled underside - no stagnation zone; cuttings keep velocity
- Shaped discharge channels - flow steered either side of the jet nozzles
- Single-pass evacuation - rock exits before it can be re-ground
- Drop-in fitment - standard pin and change-out, site-normal settings
- Drop-in - zero rig modification
- Patented - AU 2014273848
- Field-proven on operating mines
- Cuts collar dust at the source
- Fewer change-outs, less live work
- Headroom for autonomous drilling
- Australian designed & engineered
- Breakeven holds at zero life gain
sustained over 10,560 m of production drilling - the site re-ordered
m/hr founder ceiling (+~30%) vs 260–280 standard, on D60K & 6240 rigs
standard-bit life with the TurboTerra™ sub, proven at Bengalla
instantaneous penetration, zero bogging - independent proof-of-concept
RipTerra™ at a technical level.
Every figure below is field-measured or drawn from the DrillTerra cost model. Full trial records and the live model are available in the evidence pack.
Configuration
- Product
- RipTerra™ kinetic-flow tricone
- Production unit
- 229 mm
- Ground class
- Soft to medium
- Face profile
- Concave, with shaped discharge channels
- Fitment
- Drop-in - standard pin and change-out
- Rig modification
- None - site-normal settings and bailing air
Field-measured performance
- Sustained ROP
- +15% over 10,560 m of production drilling
- Instantaneous penetration
- +30%, zero bogging
- Founder ceiling
- 300–440 m/hr vs 260–280 standard
- Bit life with TurboTerra™ sub
- 2.6× standard-bit life
- Change-outs avoided
- ~48 per rig-year
Economics (Hunter Valley inputs)
- Total drilling cost
- $8.96 → $7.45 per metre
- Saving per metre
- $1.51
- Per rig-year
- $597K
- 5-year fleet NPV
- $51.8M
- Breakeven
- +11% ROP at zero life gain
Protection
- RipTerra™
- Australian patent 2014273848 - granted
- RockTerra™
- WO2025073006A1 - filed worldwide
- TurboTerra™
- Patent pending · international protection
A tricone engineered around cuttings evacuation - not just cutting.
On Hunter Valley inputs, total drilling cost falls from $8.96 to $7.45 per metre - both terms improve: a longer-lived bit amortises cheaper and every metre takes fewer rig hours - roughly half a million dollars per rig-year. Downside fenced: at zero life gain, +11% breaks even - the field gave +15%.
Second-order gains, first-order value.
~48 fewer bit change-outs per rig-year - less live work at the deck
regrind is the dominant fines source; RipTerra™ removes it at origin
850+ rig-hours returned → 138–354 tCO₂e avoided per rig-year
+30% founder headroom for auto-drill optimisers to actually use
A system, not a single tool.
soft–medium ground - available now
very hard ground - next generation, filed worldwide (WO2025073006A1)
life extension - in every system
Proven on operating mines, not on paper.
- +15%sustained ROPHunter Valley, NSW
RipTerra™ is commercially available
The flagship kinetic-flow tricone moves from structured trials to available-now - a drop-in fit for existing blast-hole fleets, with zero rig modification.
Read the story → 
2.6×standard-bit lifeBengalla, NSWTurboTerra™ records 2.6× standard-bit life at Bengalla
A production-trial result at Bengalla: bits fitted with the TurboTerra™ sub reached 2.6× standard-bit life - and re-drew the change-out schedule.
Read the story →
WOfiled worldwideGlobalRockTerra™: next-generation family filed worldwide
The very-hard-ground successor to RipTerra™ has been filed under the international patent family WO 2025/073006 A1.
Read the story →
See it on your own numbers.
Every operation's ground, rigs and rates differ - so we don't ask you to take ours. Put your bit price, bit life and penetration rate into the live cost model and the case rebuilds itself on your inputs - in minutes.
- 4-page technical whitepaper
- 96 s DEM simulation video
- Live cost model - your inputs
- Full field trial record
Faster metres · longer bit life · less dust · lower cost per metre - from the first hole.