Drilling and construction of boreholes in South Africa: How to know where to drill a borehole in South Africa? So you have a stand where you want to drill and install a borehole, but you don’t know where exactly to drill the borehole. Now that’s where the initial stage of the borehole comes to place, “Borehole Siting”.

The purpose of borehole siting is to identify one or more drilling targets which offer the best possibility of locating a groundwater resource capable of supporting a successful borehole for the intended purpose of use. It is not sufficient to be satisfied with meeting the minimum yield required for a borehole to be deemed successful. Every effort must be made to identify a target which offers the greatest chance of success also in terms of borehole yield. This task falls squarely on the shoulders of the Hydrogeological Consultant. The scope of activities related to this task extends from a pre-fieldwork assessment of the groundwater resource potential in the project area to field-based exploration efforts.

The key to successful borehole siting is understanding, amongst others, the geology, structural geology, geohydrology and geomorphology (in particular weathering patterns and profiles) in detail on a specific site. Geophysics is only one of the tools available with which to obtain a better understanding of these aspects.

Source: Gauteng Borehole Drillers