Two hundred years after Cornishman Richard Trevithick took his engineering skills and equipment to South America, a team from Falmouth-based Fugro Seacore is involved in a multi-million pound project in Chile, which requires world class drilling expertise.

Trevithick exported nine beam engines to the region in September 1814. Now 200 years later another Cornish engineering company is exporting world leading and ground breaking engineering technology to a similar destination.

Named the “Escondida Water Supply” the Chilean project aims to supply 2,500 litres of water per second to the world's largest copper mine, Escondida, which is 170km south east of Antofagasta, inland in the Atacama desert.  The mine is on target to produce 1.3 million tonnes of ore this year.

Fugro, the world's leading overwater marine drilling contractor is using the port of Antofagasta as a base port for its operations, which involves crew changes, supplies and tug work.

Managing the project from the Bickland Water headquarters in Falmouth is Alun Jones from Truro, manager of Fugro Seacore’s Marine Installation Services Division. 

Alun said: “There are many Cornish men out on site – a team of around 25 at any one time. Currently the project manager in Chile is Julian Cockett from Playing Place and the works supervisor is Dave Roberts from Penzance.”

Falmouth man Tom Weller, a project engineer with the team, writes from onboard the jack-up rig Excalibur: “We are here to drill three shafts down the coast at Coloso, as part of the ‘Escondida Water Supply’.

“Each 12m deep shaft is being drilled down through the centre of four overlapping 6.5m diameter shallower shafts, a world first, all of which are being drilled exclusively by Fugro Seacore. The shafts we are drilling are 7m in diameter and 12m deep, and will be used for the intake and outfall of seawater for the coastal desalination plant.”

The jack-up barge Excalibur left Falmouth last September in tow of the tug MTS Vanguard on an 8,300 miles voyage to the Port of Antofagasta where it arrived in November.  Here the T90 drill rig was assembled.

“We started drilling at Coloso in January 2015. So far we have completed two out of the three sockets. Once we finish the third socket we will remain on site to assist with the installation of the liners and risers in each shaft. This will see us through to late 2015.” said Tom.

On a lighter note Tom observed that pasties could be found ashore.

“You can still buy Cornish pasties here, a legacy from 150 years ago, although they've modified them a bit by adding chilli and spices and olives. Sacrilege? I prefer to see it as inventiveness...” he said.

Another Cornishman, Newquay born George Hicks, left his mark on the country when he arrived in Antofagasta with a prospecting team to search for silver in the Atacama Desert. Navigational aids were few and far between in 1868.  Hicks erected a huge white anchor and other marks on the hillside overlooking the Port of Antofagasta to assist mariners in finding a safe anchorage.

Tom said: “With GPS this is not required anymore but the locals still keep the anchor in pristine condition.”

Hicks returned to Cornwall with a small fortune, building Pentowan, an elegant mansion above the harbour at Newquay, in 1880.

Fugro Seacore played a major role in the salvage of the stricken cruise ship Costa Concordia. The company drilled the offshore foundations for six platforms, the three largest platforms equaling the size of a rugby pitch. Costa Concordia was then par-buckled on to the platforms, before it was re-floated.