Water and minerals sit in the same ground, and the drilling disciplines needed to reach either one share more technical overlap than the industry usually acknowledges.
A contractor who has spent decades drilling water bores through variable strata, managing groundwater ingress, and constructing bores that meet regulatory standards has, almost by necessity, built the same core competency an exploration program needs: getting a clean, structurally sound hole through unpredictable ground without compromising the water table above it.
Arcon Drilling, a family-run contractor based in Holbrook, New South Wales, has built its reputation over 28 years primarily on water bore construction. It has extended that capability directly into mineral exploration drilling, a combination that is more useful to explorers than it might first appear.
Decades earned on councils and water authorities, not just mine sites
Arcon’s client list is a useful indicator of the standard of its work. The company has completed contract work for Gosford City Council, NSW State Water, Goulburn-Murray Water, East Gippsland Water, Corowa Shire Council, Carrathool Shire Council, and Tumbarumba Shire Council.
Water authorities and councils are not casual clients. They operate under strict regulatory frameworks for bore construction, groundwater protection, and public water supply infrastructure.
A contractor that retains this kind of client base over multiple decades has demonstrated a level of compliance and workmanship that a shorter track record cannot show.
Water bore work also teaches a specific kind of discipline that carries directly across to resource drilling. This includes the ability to case off water-bearing zones correctly, manage variable ground conditions across a large range of hole diameters, and complete a bore that performs as intended over years of service rather than just at the point of handover.
A genuine range across bore diameters and depths
Arcon’s water bore capability spans 2- to 48-inch diameters, using mud and air rotary methods, with reverse circulation mud drilling to depths of 330m.
That range matters for exploration and mining clients who need groundwater infrastructure alongside a resource drilling program, dewatering bores, monitoring wells, process water supply bores, or water sourcing for a remote camp, without having to engage a second contractor for the water side of the project.
On the exploration side, Arcon offers reverse circulation (RC) air drilling and diamond core drilling across the standard core sizes used in Australian mineral exploration: NQ, HQ, PQ, C6, and C8.
Covering that full range of core diameters gives explorers flexibility to match the drilling method to the target — from faster, lower-cost RC air drilling for early-stage target definition through to larger-diameter diamond core drilling, where geotechnical or metallurgical sample quality is the priority.
Environmental and site investigation work rounds out the offering
Arcon also provides environmental and site investigation drilling, including auger drilling, standard penetration test soil sampling, and monitor bore installation.
This service line is increasingly relevant to mining and exploration projects navigating environmental approvals, since baseline groundwater monitoring and soil characterisation are now standard requirements for permitting new exploration or extraction activity in most Australian jurisdictions.
Having a single contractor capable of both environmental compliance and exploration drilling simplifies scheduling and reduces the number of separate contractor relationships a junior explorer needs to manage.
What a small, long-running contractor offers that a larger firm sometimes cannot
Arcon is a comparatively small operation, run under the direct oversight of Rob Archer-Condon from Holbrook in the NSW Riverina.
For remote and regional programs, particularly in southern NSW and northern Victoria where much of the company’s water authority work has been based, that regional footprint can translate into faster mobilisation and lower travel costs than a larger contractor based further afield.
According to Arcon, its equipment is well maintained and fitted with safety systems, and its work practices documented and followed. These are standard but necessary assurances for any client engaging a drilling contractor on a site with its own safety management plan.
For exploration companies and mining operators planning a program that needs both mineral drilling and water infrastructure, whether for site supply, dewatering, or environmental monitoring, Arcon is worth considering. The company’s combination of long-standing water bore expertise and a genuine mineral exploration drilling capability merits a conversation before committing to separate contractors for each discipline.
