Extracting valuable minerals like copper, iron ore, coal, diamonds and gold from the Earth's crust in support of our global economy typically begins with the boring of a grid of "blast holes" in hard-rock formations. To produce those "soda straw"-shaped explosives containers, it takes the precise and powerful delivery of three forces - tons of downward force, thousands of foot-pounds or newtons of rotary force, and upwards of 3,800 cubic feet of jet-stream "bailing" air - to advance a tri-cone drill bit into hard rock. P&H drilling rigs are the rugged, smart platforms that get that done for high-throughput surface mining operations worldwide. These machines are anything but "boring."