The company is based in Utah, near Rio Tinto's biggest copper mine and designs, manufactures, owns, operates and sells drilling equipment in over 100 countries.

It has suffered from the mining downturn. At the end of FY13 951 rigs were deployed, or only three of every 10 rigs that it owned. The rest were dormant. It's not a complicated business, and investors initially flocked to it. After listing in April 2007, having raised $2.4bn, less than six months later, its shares peaked at more than $22 for a market cap of $4bn. But its current share price indicates that in its short history as a listed company, Boart consistently overestimated the demand for its product.