Johannes Välivaara Archives - International Mining

Some 16 months after launch, Sandvik’s AutoMine® Concept Underground Drill, also known as ‘Amelia’, is having the impact Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions was hoping for, influencing most forward-looking conversations it is having with new and existing underground drilling clients.

The AutoMine Concept Underground Drill, launched at the company’s Test Mine in Tampere, Finland, in September 2022, is a fully autonomous, twin-boom development drill rig capable of drilling without human interaction. The cabinless unit can plan and execute the entire drilling cycle from tramming to the face, setting up for drilling, drilling the pattern and returning home to charge for the next cycle – all on battery power.

Amelia – a name that was attached to the vehicle due to its industrious connotations – was designed to showcase next-generation intelligent automation and other new technologies and features that will be introduced for current and future Sandvik offerings.

Sandvik’s underground drilling team is now that much closer to having identified what these features are.

“Amelia was always designed as a conversation starter, and that has certainly proven true,” Patrick Murphy, President, Underground Drilling Division at Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions, told IM and a select group of trade journalists during a recent visit to the Test Mine. “Hundreds and hundreds of clients have seen this vehicle since launch, and we have had a lot of feedback; much of it proving very valuable.”

From speaking to Murphy and the AutoMine team, it is apparent many customers would have liked to acquire one of these concept machines upon launch in September, however its true value remains as a technology demonstrator for testing and development purposes.

*Amelia uses a SLAM-based algorithm to improve tramming and localisation accuracy*

The self-contained drill has no cable, being powered instead off an on-board battery. It uses and optimises power and electricity based on need, making that power supply last even longer. Automated tramming, mission management, drilling and bit changing are some of the elements Sandvik highlighted upon launch, and much of the initial customer discussion has centred around these features.

“Having a machine that is sitting here in the Test Mine, is tangible, functional and can be demonstrated, allows us to have these practical conversations with customers, more so than any model we could put up on a screen,” Murphy said.

One of the elements that has caught the attention of customers is an automated lifter tube installer that removes personnel from the face charging procedure.

“When speaking to many operators, the potential to automate lifter tube installation keeps coming up,” Murphy said. “These tubes – installed in the bottom rows of a drill pattern to ensure no cuttings or muck from the holes above fill the previously-drilled holes – typically require a ‘nipper’ or ‘offsider’ to come in beside the face of the drill for installation. The potential to remove this person from this hazardous environment has really captured the attention of customers.”

The automated process Amelia currently uses for lifter tube installations is unlikely to be commercialised, but a variant of it could feature on the underground development drills in the future.

*Patrick Murphy, President, Underground Drilling Division at Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions*

Some other elements included on the concept vehicle likely to come into the commercial drilling line-up include an artificial intelligence-guided automatic drill bit changer to identify when bits are worn and then, changed automatically, a SLAM (simultaneous localisation and mapping)-based algorithm to improve tramming and localisation accuracy and, of course, battery-backed drilling.

Amelia is designed to drill a whole round off battery power, and Murphy says a commercialised, economic option would be of interest to customers.

“If we can offer that cost-effectively compared with a diesel-powered machine, then there would be a market pull,” he said. “The solution isn’t there yet, but the flexibility showcased with Amelia – in not having to supply cables or water hoses during operation – has been highlighted by many customers we have interacted with.”

Johannes Välivaara, Vice President R&D and Product lines in the Underground Drilling Division at Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions, says the commercialisation of RockPulse technology for continuous rock mass feedback to optimise drilling performance will be on the underground drilling roadmap, too.

“Rock Pulse has been built to measure the stress vibrations going in and out from the hole through drilling consumables,” he said. “This is a future upgrade for our drills as this real-time rock information will allow operations to make plans for ground support and get the geotechnical information off the unit in real time.”

RockPulse technology already featured on Amelia could be further integrated on commercial drill rigs with geoSURE, a rig-integrated, high precision, online rock mass analysis and visualisation system initially developed for tunnelling process optimisation. geoSURE is an important tool for the assessment of rock reinforcement or injection requirements, as well as serving as an assisting tool for charging and blasting control and geological mapping, according to the OEM.

“This (geoSURE) could be further enhanced when RockPulse is integrated into it,” Välivaara said. “It is currently only available for face drilling applications but will come into the longhole drilling space, too.”

Amelia, in this case, has not just lived up to her ‘industrious’ and ‘hardworking’ traits, she has also acted as a catalyst for change.

For example, since launch, automated options for longhole drilling have risen to the surface in customer discussions. And it is hard to see AutoMine for Underground Drills having been introduced as quickly as it has without this concept vehicle having launched.

This platform, which enables operators to remotely and simultaneously control and supervise multiple automated Sandvik underground longhole drills, can increase efficiency, safety and overall productivity in mining operations.

It has also put Sandvik in a club of its own; being the only OEM able to offer a unified traffic management system for drills, loaders and trucks. This means all three types of automated equipment can be operated and tram within the one AutoMine-controlled zone.

Sandvik has released a new Dual Controls package to improve fleet optimisation, versatility and performance for its leading Sandvik DD422i and Sandvik DD422iE face drills.

The Dual Controls package was designed to address a wide range of needs identified by mining contractors currently using development drills for a variety of tasks including boring, bolting and meshing, the company said.

This option combines better drilling intelligence with readiness to sustain rough, multi-task usage, with development of the Dual Controls concept carried out in close cooperation with Byrnecut, a leading global mining contractor.

“Sandvik approached us to give feedback on the development of the machine, which we were happy to do,” Pat Boniwell, Managing Director of Byrnecut Australia, said. “Our key operators, trainers and technical people were involved in that process.”

Johannes Välivaara, Product Manager, underground development drills at Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions, says many Sandvik customers, particularly mining contractors, have been using conventional Sandvik DD421 hydraulic controlled jumbos side-by-side with intelligent Sandvik DD422i and Sandvik DD422iE drill rigs.

“In this arrangement, the hydraulic drills are used for required ground support work, whereas intelligent drills are used for boring purposes, delivering long and accurate rounds with minimised overbreak,” he says. “Combined with Sandvik automation, the intelligent drills can maintain production even during shift changes. We wanted to challenge this paradigm with the new Sandvik DD422i Dual Controls package in order to make it a preferable option vis-à-vis traditional hydraulic controlled drills, allowing a single platform like Sandvik DD422i or Sandvik DD422iE to be used for multiple and different applications.”

To this end, Sandvik partnered with Byrnecut Australia to design what the company considers to be the revolutionary solution required to address the challenging and wide ranging needs of mining contractors for optimising their drill rig fleets.

“Operator safety and usability was the main focus of the design, as this is particularly important within multi-task operations, where the operator needs be comfortable in using the machine for both ground support and standard face drilling purposes,” Välivaara says. “We took our newest cabin design as benchmark and analysed what changes were required to the drilling controls to make it a preferable option over Sandvik DD421.”

These changes, combined with drastically reduced noise levels, improved drilling visibility and several other improvements, capitalise on the best features of Sandvik DD421, Sandvik DD422i and Sandvik DD422iE rigs, Sandvik says.

“The torque drilling control system has proven its performance in providing best possible drilling productivity while simultaneously reducing the costs of drilling consumables,” Välivaara says. “We wanted to make these benefits available for the ground support applications as well. The SB60 booms combined with Sandvik split feeds have long been the industry preference, particularly in Australian mining applications. This configuration allows us to provide both drilling intelligence and robustness packaged seamlessly together.”

A single platform for different drilling applications offers several other benefits, such as increased commonalities in spare parts, service principles and general ease of use across the whole fleet, according to Sandvik.

“With the updated Sandvik DD422i package options, our customers may choose from multiple specifications to suit their application needs,” Välivaara says. “This includes either; the Platinum option with long fixed feeds, with capabilities for full face drilling automation; or the new Dual Controls with split feeds, for manual multi-task operations. This provides modular options for the boom and drilling assemblies, whilst the carrier and cabin remain standardised.”

The new unit also comes with a battery-electric driveline as an option for improving sustainability.

“We launched the industry’s first highly intelligent mining jumbo with electric driveline system, and since then these units have performed in multiple mine operations globally,” Välivaara says. “Combining this technology with the Dual Controls package creates a truly viable diesel alternative.”

Development work for the Dual Controls package, including a usability study in Australia, was carried out in close cooperation between Sandvik experts and Byrnecut Australia. The combined team tested various drilling controls and concepts in a virtual simulator. This allowed the design process to be highly iterative, enabling new ideas to be easily implemented and validated before commencing the construction of the first prototype unit. Once the prototype was tested extensively at the Sandvik test mine in Tampere, Finland, it was shipped to Australia to validate its performance in real mine conditions and operations.

“The first Sandvik DD422i Dual Controls unit was field tested at the Jundee gold mine (owned by Northern Star Resources) in Western Australia in close cooperation with Byrnecut,” Välivaara says. “We wanted to compare its performance within true multi-task operations against Sandvik DD421.”

Dual Controls package tests were completed over four months with impressive results, the companies said.

“We’re seeing approximately a 10% improvement in productivity and nearly 20% improvement on drill consumable costs,” Boniwell says. “The operators really like the upgraded platform; everything from the improved cab ergonomics, sound reduction and general comfort of the machine. They’ve got all the benefits they’ve had historically in terms of usability, with the additional benefits of improved drill control, and future potential automation sequences.”

He added: “One of the best things to come out of the trial has been the interaction between the two parties. The operators can see that their feedback has directly resulted in changes to the machine, which has gone a long way in making the operator acceptance almost seamless.”

Amelia: the underground drilling conversation starter

Sandvik’s DD421i face drills go dual control in joint development with Byrnecut Australia