Boart Longyear wireline core retrieval system, an innovation that revolutionized the diamond drilling industry by increasing productivity on the worksite and making tripping core from the bottom of the hole safer for the drilling assistant. Later named the Q Wireline System, the new core retrieval method introduced a level of productivity never before seen in the exploration drilling industry. In 1964 Longyear sold 25 percent of its family-owned stock to FACTS, a Luxembourg-based holding company owned jointly by Boart International and Christensen Diamond Products Company. Three years later FACTS exercised its option to purchase another 25 percent of Longyear's family stock. The
Boart Longyear adopted the new logo and corporate colors. Most of Boart Longyear's employees and revenues in the mid-1990s came from international operations. Operations in the United States employed about 1,000 people and accounted for about $130 million in sales, a relatively small part of the firm's 8,000 employees and over $600 million in annual revenues worldwide. With diverse products and services and decades of international experience, the Boart Longyear Company seemed well prepared to enter the new century. Despite ownership by Anglo American for more than 30 years, Boart Longyear was considered a non-core asset for the Johannesburg based mining company.