Caterpillar has announced at its Global Mining Forum event that it has been working on a new horizontal drill jumbo project since 2013, following feedback from mining customers. The new jumbo will be a two boom model, though as yet there is no name for the model and no specified manufacturing location. The two boom design was chosen due to this type having the largest share of the underground horizontal development market, currently dominated by Atlas Copco and Sandvik, with other players including MTI (just bought by Joy Global) as well as Mine Master, JH Fletcher, Oldenburg  and a number of others.

Going back to the 2000s, Caterpillar did develop a two boom underground jumbo with a Montabert rock drill that was tested in Australia by contractor Byrnecut at Jundee, but the project was suspended due to the market downturn. Subsequently with the acquisition of Bucyrus, Caterpillar picked up the Mine King range of jumbos including the MK4/MK20/MK35/MK7 as well as the TK70/TK140/TK160, which went through the process of being renamed to Caterpillar models such as the MD2060 (MK35)  and MD2070 (MK7), but these were never big sellers globally under Terex or Bucyrus and these designs were also discontinued, leaving only the shaft drills in the Caterpillar line-up such as the MD1000.

So with this new project the company has opted to start from the ground up. The new jumbo drill is expected to be produced from 2017 onwards and is thought to feature Caterpillar’s own rock drill design. However, the company is not believed by IM to have any plans to manufacture a vertical production drill at this stage.