Inside CED: You Can Buy Machines. Building a Drilling Team Is Harder.
You can buy a drill rig.
You can buy another one tomorrow.
Compressors can be ordered.
Drill rods can be manufactured.
Bits come in boxes.
Engines have part numbers.
But try ordering 20 years of drilling experience and asking for delivery by Friday.
That gets slightly more complicated.
Welcome back to Inside CED.
Over the past few Saturdays we've shown the machinery behind Cylinder Exploration Drilling.
This week we're talking about something considerably more important.
The people.
Because CED can manufacture all the exploration drilling equipment it likes.
Without good drillers, mechanics, engineers, supervisors, technicians, fabricators and support personnel, it's just an expensive collection of steel and hydraulics.
And as CED grows internationally, we're going to need considerably more of them.
CED IS BUILDING MORE THAN A DRILLING EQUIPMENT COMPANY
CED started around drilling equipment.
That remains a huge part of what we do.
Diamond drilling rigs.
RC rigs.
Air Core equipment.
Compressors.
Pumps.
Drill strings.
Consumables.
Spares.
Our growing SFM Series.
But we're increasingly building something broader.
A global exploration drilling capability.
That means manufacturing equipment.
Engineering equipment.
Selling equipment.
Supporting equipment.
And, increasingly, operating equipment.
Those last two words change everything.
Because once you move from supplying a machine to taking responsibility for drilling metres, people become just as important as horsepower.
A GOOD DRILLER IS WORTH A LOT MORE THAN A SHINY RIG
Anyone can stand next to a new drill rig for a photograph.
Operating one properly is slightly different.
A good exploration driller develops something that is difficult to put on a specification sheet:
feel.
They hear when something changes.
They notice vibration.
They watch pressures.
They understand what the rods are telling them.
They know when to push.
They know when not to push.
They recognise changing ground conditions.
They understand water.
They understand drilling fluids.
And after enough years, they often know something is wrong several minutes before the machine decides to explain it properly.
That experience matters.
Especially in diamond drilling.
Especially in difficult ground.
And especially when the nearest workshop isn't exactly around the corner.
THE MECHANIC NOBODY NOTICES UNTIL EVERYTHING STOPS
Then there are the fitters and mechanics.
Probably the most popular people on any drill site immediately after something stops working.
Exploration drilling equipment has an unpleasant working life.
Dust.
Mud.
Water.
Heat.
Vibration.
Long operating hours.
Hydraulic pressure.
Heavy drill strings.
Constant movement.
Things wear.
Things loosen.
Hoses fail.
Bearings complain.
Seals eventually surrender.
The objective isn't pretending equipment never breaks.
It is having people who understand why it broke, how to get it working again and how to stop the same problem happening repeatedly.
A good drilling mechanic doesn't just repair equipment.
They protect metres.
THEN YOU NEED ENGINEERS WHO ACTUALLY LISTEN
This is something we're deliberately trying to build into CED.
The workshop should listen to the drill site.
Engineering should listen to the mechanics.
Manufacturing should listen to the drillers.
And management should occasionally stop talking long enough to listen to all of them.
Because the people operating and maintaining equipment discover things engineering drawings don't.
A hose is difficult to reach.
A service point is in the wrong place.
A control could be positioned better.
A component isn't surviving the environment.
A modification makes rod handling easier.
A different layout saves maintenance time.
That information is valuable.
So CED wants a feedback loop:
FIELD → OPERATIONS → ENGINEERING → PRODUCTION → NEXT MACHINE.
The people connect it.
SOUTH AFRICA: A SERIOUS MINING TALENT BASE
South Africa matters enormously to what we're building.
This isn't just about opening another office.
South Africa has generations of mining, drilling, mechanical and engineering experience.
Drillers.
Mining engineers.
Mechanical engineers.
Fitters.
Boilermakers.
Fabricators.
Electricians.
Hydraulic technicians.
Workshop managers.
Supervisors.
People who understand what mining equipment actually goes through.
As CED expands our South African engineering and manufacturing capability, we want that experience inside the company.
Particularly as the CED SFM Series develops.
Because building mobile drilling systems around 6×6 platforms requires considerably more than simply bolting a drill rig onto a vehicle and hoping for the best.
Vehicle engineering.
Payload.
Weight distribution.
Hydraulics.
Drilling systems.
Fabrication.
Electrical systems.
Support equipment.
Field maintainability.
That requires good people.
INDONESIA: WHERE MANUFACTURING EXPERIENCE MEETS DRILLING
Indonesia gives CED something different.
A major mining country.
An established drilling industry.
Manufacturing capability.
And technicians who spend their working lives around exploration equipment.
Our Indonesian operation plays an important role in manufacturing and assembling CED drilling equipment.
Mechanics and technicians install engines.
Build hydraulic systems.
Assemble masts.
Fit rotation systems.
Route hoses.
Install controls.
Test machines.
Find problems.
Fix them.
Then do it again.
This is practical knowledge.
And practical knowledge compounds.
The person who has assembled 50 drilling rigs notices things the person assembling their first rig won't.
That's exactly the experience we want to retain and develop.
AND THE UK CONNECTS THE BUSINESS
CED's UK base plays a different role.
International leadership.
Commercial operations.
Contracts.
Global project coordination.
Business development.
Supplier relationships.
Financial control.
Strategy.
Because somebody eventually has to make sure all these rigs, people, containers and invoices end up in roughly the correct country.
But the bigger opportunity is connecting these different capabilities.
🇬🇧 UK leadership
🇿🇦 South African engineering & manufacturing
🇮🇩 Indonesian manufacturing
🌍 International drilling operations
One company.
Different skills.
WE ALSO NEED THE NEXT GENERATION
Mining and drilling have an experience problem.
The industry needs experienced people.
But experienced people eventually retire.
If companies only compete for the same shrinking group of senior drillers, fitters and engineers, the industry hasn't solved anything.
Someone needs to train the next generation.
That means bringing younger people into workshops.
Putting them alongside experienced technicians.
Teaching them hydraulics.
Teaching them drilling systems.
Teaching them maintenance.
Teaching them why doing something properly matters.
And eventually putting them into the field.
You cannot download drilling experience.
It has to be built.
Shift by shift.
Breakdown by breakdown.
Hole by hole.
TRAINING IS PART OF THE PRODUCT
This also changes how we think about equipment sales.
A customer buying a new drilling rig doesn't necessarily need another PDF manual.
They may need somebody standing beside the machine.
Showing the operator the controls.
Daily inspections.
Lubrication.
Service requirements.
Correct operating procedures.
Basic fault diagnosis.
What pressures should look like.
What noises shouldn't sound like.
And what absolutely not to do.
That's why CED includes commissioning and training within our wider equipment offering.
A properly trained operator protects the machine.
A properly maintained machine protects production.
And production is ultimately why the customer bought the equipment.
SOMETIMES THE CUSTOMER NEEDS MORE THAN TRAINING
Some exploration companies don't want to build an entire drilling department.
Fair enough.
Their expertise might be geology.
Their job is finding deposits.
Recruiting drillers, supervising shifts, maintaining rigs, managing consumables and keeping equipment operating might not be where they want to spend their time.
That's where CED's drilling services become increasingly relevant.
We can manufacture and supply the equipment.
But we can also discuss:
Drillers.
Supervisors.
Fitters.
Technical personnel.
Drilling management.
Complete contract drilling operations.
That creates an interesting model.
The equipment knowledge stays connected to the people operating it.
REMOTE DRILLING MAKES PEOPLE EVEN MORE IMPORTANT
Put a rig beside a major mining town and you've got options.
Put it in remote exploration terrain and the equation changes.
The mechanic matters more.
The supervisor matters more.
The driller's judgement matters more.
Planning matters more.
Spare parts planning matters more.
Communication matters more.
Because mistakes become expensive when help is far away.
CED wants to operate in exactly these environments.
Africa.
Southeast Asia.
The Pacific.
South America.
The Middle East.
Remote exploration.
Difficult access.
Places where equipment and people both need to be capable of looking after themselves.
GOOD PEOPLE ARE ALSO GOOD BUSINESS
There is a commercial reality here.
Customers don't actually want drilling rigs.
They want metres.
More specifically, they want quality geological information from those metres.
A rig sitting idle isn't delivering either.
Good people increase utilisation.
Good maintenance reduces downtime.
Good supervisors improve planning.
Good drilling practices protect equipment.
Good logistics keep consumables available.
Good engineering solves recurring problems.
Put all of that together and the customer's drilling cost begins to look considerably healthier.
That's why building a team isn't some nice corporate culture exercise.
It's operational strategy.
WE WANT TO SHOW MORE OF THE PEOPLE BEHIND CED
This is also where the Inside CED series is going.
You've seen rigs.
You've seen workshops.
You've seen hydraulic systems.
You've seen production.
Now we want you to meet more of the people.
The engineers developing equipment in South Africa.
The technicians assembling machines in Indonesia.
The drillers operating CED equipment.
The fitters keeping it running.
The supervisors managing programmes.
The people joining us as CED expands.
Not staged photographs with everyone standing awkwardly beside a machine.
Actual people doing actual work.
Because that's the company we're building.
WANT TO BUILD CED WITH US?
CED is growing.
And as we expand our equipment manufacturing, engineering, international sales and drilling operations, we're interested in meeting good people.
Particularly people with experience across:
Diamond drilling
Reverse Circulation drilling
Air Core drilling
Drilling supervision
Mechanical fitting
Hydraulics
Mining equipment engineering
Fabrication
Field maintenance
Exploration logistics
International drilling operations
We won't pretend every conversation immediately means there's a job available.
But we want to build our network before we need it.
Because the next CED project could be in South Africa.
Or Indonesia.
Or West Africa.
Or the Middle East.
Or somewhere considerably more inconvenient.
THE MACHINES WILL KEEP CHANGING. THE PEOPLE MATTER MORE.
CED will build more rigs.
The product range will expand.
The SFM Series will develop.
Workshops will get bigger.
More containers will leave.
More countries will appear on the map.
But none of that works without people.
People design the machines.
People build them.
People test them.
People operate them.
People repair them.
And ultimately, people build CED.
The steel is just the easy bit.
Work With Cylinder Exploration Drilling
If you're an exploration company looking for drilling equipment, contract drilling, drilling management or complete turnkey exploration solutions, talk to CED.
And if you're an experienced driller, fitter, technician, engineer or mining professional interested in what we're building internationally, we'd like to hear from you too.
UK leadership. South African engineering. Indonesian manufacturing. Global drilling.
We're building the team behind it.
This week's question:
What's harder to find in the drilling industry today — good drillers, good fitters, good supervisors or good engineers?
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