Foran Mining and Sandvik have unveiled the first Sandvik battery-electric jumbo drill, a DD422iE, to be used at its McIlvenna Bay project in Saskatchewan, Canada, at the CIM 2023 conference in Montreal.

The DD422iE is part of a 20-strong battery-electric vehicle fleet for the project and comes with drilling and bolting capabilities.

When Sandvik announced the fleet order with Foran Mining last year – its largest BEV order at the time. It was to include seven Sandvik 18-t-payload LH518B loaders, six Sandvik 50-t-payload TH550B trucks, four Sandvik DD422iE jumbo drill rigs, two Sandvik DL422iE longhole drills and one Sandvik DS412iE mechanical bolter. Delivery of the equipment was scheduled to begin this year and continue into 2025, Sandvik said.

In the post announcing the milestone BEV drill, Foran said: “The innovative electric DD422IE, with drilling & bolting capabilities, reinforces our commitment to delivering carbon-neutral critical mineral production. As a company, we remain dedicated to developing and implementing eco-friendly solutions that will have a lasting positive impact on the environment and the communities we serve.”

The 2022 feasibility study on McIlvenna Bay outlined a 4,200 t/d operation over an 18.4-year mine life, able to produce an average annual production of 33,000 t of copper-equivalent output over the first 15 years of mine life. By individual metal this equates to 17,600 t of copper, 28,900 t of zinc, 20,000 oz of gold and 486,000 oz of silver.