One platform · three products
RipTerra™
Soft–medium ground – available now. The kinetic-flow tricone: a concave-profiled underside and shaped discharge channels give broken rock a single-pass exit.
Patented · In production with Tier-1 operators
The next era of drilling
starts at the bit.
Mission
Take the waste out of drilling – starting at the bit.
What is DrillTerra?
DrillTerra Technologies commercialises a family of patented kinetic-flow drilling technologies – RipTerra™, RockTerra™ and TurboTerra™ – engineered to cut cost per metre, extend bit life and return rig-hours to production across soft, medium and very hard ground.
Engineered and field-proven in Australia. Built for hard ground worldwide.
Production result
+15%
Sustained ROP over 10,560 metres with RipTerra™ – proven in Tier-1 Hunter Valley production drilling.
One platform · three products
A system, not a single tool.
RipTerra™ for soft–medium ground, available now. TurboTerra™ for life extension, in every system. RockTerra™ for very hard ground, the next generation.
RipTerra™ – the kinetic-flow tricone
Conventional tricone bits waste energy regrinding cuttings at the face. RipTerra™ is engineered so cuttings leave the hole – not get reground in it.
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.
AnimationRipTerra™ (gold) · standard tricone (blue)
One platform · three products
TurboTerra™
Life extension – in every system. The TurboTerra™ sub extends bit life through savings on bearing wear: 2.6× standard-bit life in a Bengalla production trial.
One platform · three products
RockTerra™
Very hard ground – next generation. The kinetic-flow principle extended into rock strengths that break tooth carbide first and cutting geometry second.
Production trial
2.6×
Standard-bit life with the TurboTerra™ sub.
+15%
ROP over 10,560 m
$1.51
saved per metre
$597K
per rig-year
$51.8M
5-yr fleet NPV
Field results from Tier-1 Hunter Valley operations; fleet figures from DrillTerra's cost model at an 8% discount rate. The $1.51/m saving is on Hunter Valley inputs ($8.96 → $7.45 per metre); the penetration-only floor is ≈$1.17/m.
Innovation pipeline
From bench to bit – a continuous flow of new technology
Our R&D team runs a staged pipeline that moves ideas from research into commercial deployment with mining operators.
01
Research
- Face-profile studies
- Wear materials
02
Development
- RockTerra™ (very hard ground) – filed internationally
- Next-diameter RipTerra™ variants
03
Field trials
- TurboTerra™ – 2.6× at Bengalla
- RipTerra™ production trials (+15% ROP over 10,560 m)
04
Commercial
- RipTerra™ – available now
Why DrillTerra
Engineering-grade advantages for global operators
01Patent-protected
RipTerra™ is protected by Australian patent 2014273848, with the next-generation RockTerra™ family filed internationally under WO 2025/073006 A1.
02Field-first engineering
Invented on the drill deck and proven on operating blast-hole rigs – not just in the lab.
03Productivity you can measure
Faster penetration, longer bit life and fewer bit changes translate directly into metres, rig-hours and dollars.
04Lower carbon per metre
Rig-hours returned to production mean fewer engine-hours per metre drilled – measurable tCO₂e avoided that supports operator decarbonisation targets.
The team
The team behind DrillTerra.
A drill-deck inventor, a commercial builder and a strategic operator – turning a better bit into a platform.
Leadership
DH
David Hanns
Founder & Inventor
JC
John Connor
Founder & Strategic Advisor
JW
Julian Wise
Commercialisation Lead
Ground truth
Built for the world’s hardest ground.
RipTerra™ was developed and trialled in Australian Tier-1 coal operations and is engineered for hard-rock and coal drilling environments worldwide.
Insights
News from the deck, and writing from the bench.
Releases, trial results and technical notes from the team building the RipTerra platform.
Intellectual property
DrillTerra’s IP strategy tracks the product platform: the RipTerra™ bit patented in Australia, the next-generation RockTerra™ family filed internationally, and the TurboTerra™ sub protected in every system.
Patents & protectionRipTerra™
AU 2014273848
IP Australia
Granted
TurboTerra™
PCT application
IP strategy managed with IP Solved
Pending
RockTerra™
WO 2025/073006 A1
International patent family
Filed internationally