London-listed Tribe Technology says a software issue has delayed shipment of its first autonomous reverse circulation (RC) drill rig to Australia from its Northern Ireland factory.
It had expected to ship the TTDS GC 700 rig this quarter but says the scheduled arrival Down Under will now be at the end of September.
“Following arrival of the rig in Australia the company plans to recognise the relevant revenues according to the commercial contract with the client,” Tribe said.
“This includes additional product validation at our manufacturing site in Belfast in order to shorten the cycle time for factory acceptance testing and field commissioning at customer site in Australia.”
Australian drilling contractor McKay Drilling, part of Canada’s Major Drilling Group International, is waiting for the machine.
It has meanwhile bought the first batch of Tribe Tech drill rods. The 6m rods feature the manufacturer’s proprietary Tribe Tech ACK3 thread designed for use with the TTDS GC 700.
Tribe said it had sold and shipped its first patent pending RC drilling cyclone and sample splitting system to South Africa. The system, developed and produced by Tribe at its facility in Perth, Western Australia, was sold to Anglo American Corp and will be used by drilling contractor Master Drilling for grade control work.
Tribe Tech has a current market value of about £13.3 million.
