Mission
Vision
A mining industry where no rig burns fuel regrinding rock it has already broken.
Our story
DrillTerra Technologies began on the drill deck. Founder David Hanns spent decades drilling blast-hole patterns in the Hunter Valley – long enough to see the same waste on every shift: a 90-year-old bit design regrinding its own cuttings, energy disappearing into rock that was already broken.
RipTerra™ is his answer – a tricone re-engineered around cuttings evacuation, with a concave-profiled face and shaped discharge channels that give broken rock a single-pass exit. Benchmarked head-to-head against standard bits, and proven in production: +15% sustained penetration over 10,560 metres – and a site that re-ordered.
What started as one bit is now a platform: RipTerra™ available now under granted Australian patent 2014273848, the next-generation RockTerra™ family filed internationally under WO 2025/073006 A1, and the TurboTerra™ sub extending bit life 2.6× in trial at Bengalla. All of it invented, engineered and proven in Australia.
Values
Fewer bit change-outs mean less live work at the deck. Productivity and safety come from the same design decisions.
RipTerra™ wasn’t invented in a boardroom. Our best ideas come from the deck, and get proven there.
We build with operators, not around them. Long-term relationships beat short-term wins.
Less energy per metre and longer component life mean a smaller footprint per tonne.
The team
A drill-deck inventor, a commercial builder and a strategic operator – turning a better bit into a platform.
Founder & Inventor
David spent decades on Hunter Valley drill decks before deciding a 90-year-old bit design could be beaten. He invented RipTerra™ – a tricone re-engineered around cuttings evacuation – and the platform that grew from it. He holds the granted Australian patent behind RipTerra™ and leads DrillTerra’s engineering.
Founder & Strategic Advisor
John co-founded DrillTerra and guides its strategy and growth, bringing over 60 years of global company governance & strategy across numerous sectors to the company’s path from proven product to global solution.
Commercialisation Lead
Julian leads DrillTerra’s commercialisation – taking our leading field-proven technology to fleets and operators worldwide. He connects the engineering to the economics: trials, evidence, and the business case that puts a better bit on the rig.
Footprint
Developed and proven in Australian Tier-1 coal operations. Engineered for hard ground worldwide.
Delivered under NDA to qualified operators.