The invention relates to a process of cleaning boreholes, boring equipment and borings with an aqueous cleaning of one more lithium salts of alkyl sulfates of formula (I): R—O—SO3−Li+  (I) in which R is a saturated, unsaturated, branched or linear alkyl group containing 8 to 22 carbon atoms, preferably the lithium salts of alkyl sulfates are comprised of a mixture of those in which R is a saturated, linear alkyl groups having 8 to 14 carbon atoms.