Tag Archives: Sandvik

Evolution Mining to evaluate fleet as part of emissions reduction pathway

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Evolution Mining, like many of its gold mining peers, has made a commitment to emissions reduction by 2030 on the way to achieving ‘net zero’ status by 2050. This relates to Scope 1 & 2 emissions compared with its FY20 financial year baseline.

Evolution’s recent FY24 Annual Sustainability Report shows the company’s progress on this journey, demonstrating it is almost halfway to achieving the 2030 goal of a 30% reduction, with the circa-12% reduction in emissions in the last year against the adjusted FY20 baseline.

The company’s emissions reduction pathway includes leveraging partnerships, including a new one with Caterpillar’s Pathway to Sustainability program, as part of its broader focus on emissions reduction, which is a fleet-agnostic approach.

The Caterpillar program was officially launched at The Electric Mine 2024, in Perth, Western Australia. It is a four-year program with multi-pronged experience that provides companies with holistic learning opportunities, energy transition project advisement and additional benefits related to sustainable product access, Caterpillar says.

The emphasis of the program is on understanding each participating company’s sustainability objectives and providing participants with information and tools that will help them understand where they are on their own unique journeys and where energy transition strategies may need to be customised to support individual actions.

Other notable companies to have signed up to the program include NRW Holdings and Yancoal Australia.

As Evolution explained in its Annual Sustainability Report, “We also identified opportunities to improve our understanding of, and partnerships with, low emissions fuel manufacturers and suppliers to assist with planning and assessing future fleet transition needs.

“Our long-term strategy is detailed in our Net Zero commitment. It includes the investigation, trial and shift to renewables, as well as energy storage, low emissions and diesel replacement, hybrid and battery-electric fleet, and nature-based solutions. Four major sources of emissions present opportunities for decarbonisation: power supply, mobile equipment, stationary combustion and process emissions. Activities that deliver cost-competitive decarbonisation reductions continue to be integrated into our business cycle.”

One of these initiatives the company is investigating is the use of diesel-electric loaders. Evolution acknowledges there is more work to do in understanding the benefits that electric and hybrid vehicles can bring. Some research currently suggests this could theoretically reduce felt emissions by 30-35%.

Evolution has already introduced battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) for trials at its Red Lake operation, in Canada, becoming one of the first miners to take advantage of Epiroc’s battery-electric conversion kits to transform diesel-powered loaders to battery-electric driven operation.

The company has also engaged Sandvik as part of its fleet transition plans, with the potential of carrying out a trial on DL422iE battery-electric longhole drills at Red Lake.

The Sandvik DL422iE is a fully-automated, battery-powered top hammer longhole drill designed for underground mass mining in 4 x 4 m or larger production drifts, Sandvik says. It can drill vertical and inclined fans and single or parallel Ø89-127 mm longholes up to 54 m in depth using ST58 and ST68 tube rods.

The drill’s electric driveline includes a battery package and electric motor to allow for zero emissions while tramming and also reduced thermal load. The DL422iE also features Sandvik’s patented Charging While Drilling technology; an innovation for reduced battery charging time without the need for additional infrastructure.

Evolution added in its report: “Application of technologies to reduce Scope 1 emissions from mine fleet is a complex decarbonisation challenge for the industry. A number of short, medium and long-term solutions are currently being assessed, trialled and considered across our operations. These include solutions that are technologically mature, such as hybrid vehicles, as well as technologies that have high potential but have limitations at present due to their practical application within Evolution operating mines and their commercial competitiveness (eg battery-electric vehicles).”

Perenti and Sandvik to collaborate on underground diesel-electric equipment

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Global mining services provider Perenti and Sandvik have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at MINExpo INTERNATIONAL® 2024 centred on developing cutting-edge diesel-electric equipment for underground mines.

This collaboration aims to enhance sustainability, efficiency and productivity in underground mining operations, Sandvik said.

Under the agreement, the companies will work together to optimise underground diesel-electric loaders and trucks. Through Perenti’s leading underground mining business, Barminco, the collaboration partnership will focus on improving Barminco’s operations and generating valuable insights and data to further refine Sandvik’s diesel-electric technology.

The initial phase of the collaboration involves establishing a shared vision for optimising Sandvik’s diesel-electric machines to meet Perenti’s requirements. Perenti will contribute to the machine design and provide feedback at various testing stages, including pre-factory testing, operational testing and trial testing.

Mark Norwell, Perenti Managing Director & CEO, welcomed the agreement, saying Perenti was excited to explore the full potential of diesel-electric solutions as part of its journey to decarbonisation.

“We are constantly looking for ways to improve the working environment and boost underground safety, efficiency and sustainability,” he said. “Diesel-electric equipment has the potential to do this. Collaborating with our partners is a critical step in the process, and we believe that working with Sandvik enables us to benefit from cutting-edge technology and also play a role in shaping the equipment that the wider industry will be using tomorrow. That’s good for us and it’s good for our customers.”

Mats Eriksson, President of Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions, emphasised that the mutual benefits of collaboration often do lead to better products – and safer, more efficient operations.

“Perenti, through its businesses including Barminco, is one of the world’s leading mining services providers, and can provide us with design suggestions and fantastic insights into real-world mining conditions,” he said. “Together, we can create equipment optimised for Perenti’s working conditions while also developing the most advanced diesel-electric machines available anywhere in the world.”

Diesel-electric mining equipment is seen by many within the industry as a way of achieving cleaner, more sustainable and more reliable mining, without the structural changes required for a fully-electric operation.

Diesel-electric machines typically have a diesel engine that drives a generator which, in turn, provides electricity to motors responsible for movement and operating equipment. Unlike conventional diesel, diesel-electric machines generally have no torque converter and fewer rotating components, allowing for a more flexible design, requiring less maintenance and enabling lower operating costs while maintaining high availability.

Sandvik first announced last year that it was moving ahead with developing a diesel-electric range of underground loaders and trucks to complement its leading battery-electric offering. The decision followed the showcasing of Sandvik’s Toro™ diesel-electric truck demonstrator to customers at a technology workshop in Turku, Finland in 2022. This demonstrator is on the booth at MINExpo 2024, in Las Vegas, this week.

Boliden Kevitsa, Sandvik to jointly test battery-electric concept surface drill rig

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Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions and Boliden’s Kevitsa mine have signed a collaboration agreement to test and develop Sandvik’s battery-electric concept surface drill rig in order to gain real-world data on its operation and performance.

Boliden Kevitsa, a multi-metal open-pit mine in Sodankylä, Northern Finland, is known for efforts to minimise environmental impact while maximising the energy efficiency of the operation. The mine invests constantly in automation, electrification and remote-control systems, all standout features of the Sandvik battery-electric concept surface drill rig.

The modern infrastructure at Kevitsa makes it an ideal field-testing lab for the new concept drill rig, which Sandvik introduced in November 2023. The lessons learned jointly during the testing period will be used to further develop the concept machine. The harsh Arctic conditions and Kevitsa’s strict mining standards will ensure a demanding trial environment for the concept rig’s productivity, safety and sustainability features.

“Sandvik’s battery-electric concept surface drill rig is a testament to our mission to gear our value chain towards net zero emissions,” Lauri Laihanen, Vice President, R&D, Surface Drilling, Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions, said. “Most of the emissions generated in the Sandvik value chain come from the use of our products, so minimising these emissions is a priority that will contribute both to the sustainability of the end-products and global sustainability efforts overall.”

The battery-electric concept surface drill rig combines the flexibility of battery operation with the endurance of a power cable. The battery pack, which lasts for up to one hour of drilling or up to seven hours of tramming, is primarily intended for tramming and drilling individual holes, while the bulk of production relies on more than 180 m of tethered cable.

In addition to increased freedom of movement and flexibility, the benefits of battery operation also include higher utilization rates because the rig can immediately start drilling at a new location while the cable is still being set up. The more manageable tether, thanks to its simple setup with automatic tightening and smaller cable diameter, serves to make the cable operation as effortless as possible.

Sandvik presents new ‘trolley module’ for BEV trucks at MINExpo

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Alongside an announcement focusing on the introduction of an electric modular platform for its Toro™ underground loaders and trucks at MINExpo INTERNATIONAL® 2024, Sandvik has also presented a trolley module for a BEV truck in Las Vegas.

Trolley-electric trucks are expected to be used in large truck applications where the traffic flow is predictable, ramps are long and fleets are big, Sandvik says.

The company said a timeline for commercial availability of the trolley module was “pending customer interest towards testing and adopting the technology”.

The modular Toro platform approach for loaders and trucks, meanwhile, is expected to meet the diverse needs arising from the ongoing electric transition across Sandvik’s global customer base, the OEM says.

Sandvik aims to increase customer productivity, improve safety and support environmental sustainability while keeping ore moving efficiently with this platform approach. The vast range of customer needs requires agility and a multitude of co-existing technologies, as individual mines are adopting new technologies at varying paces, it said.

The backbone of the platform is the electric driveline. Built around it, the modular approach will cover all key machine elements starting from high-level architecture and continuing to the detailed module designs. Practical examples of modules include operator environment, critical steel structures and hydraulic systems, among others. Sandvik’s own BEV battery modules and charging stations complete the ecosystem.

Building on the electric platform, Sandvik expects its near-term load and haul offering to feature diesel-electrics, hybrids, battery-electrics, trolley modules and cable-electric solutions. While new innovations are developed, also current conventional diesel technologies will be further developed.

Bellevue Gold reinforces sustainable production growth plans with addition of Sandvik DD422iE BEV

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Bellevue Gold Limited has started the underground decline development at the Tribune portal, part of its namesake mine in Western Australia, employing a new Sandvik DD422iE battery-electric jumbo as part of its production growth strategy.

The Tribune decline milestone is significant because Tribune will provide a second independent mine access route. It will be the sixth independent mining area, which is being developed by an additional fifth jumbo (the Sandvik 422iE). It is expected to access ore from the Tribune lode in the December 2024 quarter.

Bellevue’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Darren Stralow, said: “The commencement of Tribune is important as it not only provides an additional mining area and haulage decline, but it also creates the platform for commencement of the southern drill drive to target mine life extensions.

“The key infrastructure upgrades are a core part of the Bellevue growth plan and will unlock the ability to achieve the mining rates required for increased production. We are already seeing the benefits of increased ventilation and work areas in our underground mining rates, and the successful dewatering of the old workings unlocks high-grade ore to mine in the upcoming quarters that was previously inaccessible.”

Underground development rates are scheduled to increase over the second half of the company’s 2025 financial year as infrastructure constraints are released and more working areas become available, with the production expected to be back-ended to the second half of the financial year as further development headings and underground advance rates ramp up to a forecast run rate of 1.35 Mt/y by the end of the financial year.

Production guidance for FY25 is 165,000-180,000 oz at a project all-in sustaining cost of A$1,750-1,850/oz ($1,166-1,233/oz) of gold with the production profile weighted towards the second half of this financial year.

The company recently released its five-year growth plan which sees production forecast to ramp up to more than 200,000 oz/y run rate from the last quarter of that financial year before reaching circa-250,000 oz/y in the 2028 financial year.

The ramp up of underground tonnages continues to advance with the key ventilation upgrade in construction and commissioning due to commence on September 18, 2024. The ventilation upgrade will initially increase underground vent flows by 50% and will provide fit-for-purpose vent fans suitable for the life of mine, Bellevue says. Historic mine dewatering has also reached a significant milestone with the dewatering of the old workings now allowing for the removal of the safety exclusion zone from the historic underground. This will unlock mining of high-grade development and stoping in the Armand mining area.

These two key infrastructure works are expected to assist in de-bottlenecking the underground and allow more efficient use of the mining fleet.

The addition of a Sandvik DD422iE battery-electric vehicle, which trams on battery and plugs into the mine’s captive power infrastructure during drilling operations, demonstrates Bellevue’s commitment to electrification of the mining fleet where practical, the company says.

The Sandvik DD422iE is an electric development jumbo designed to drive down production costs while reducing the environmental impacts of drilling and tunnelling. By using electric energy from an onboard battery during tramming, Sandvik DD422iE produces zero emissions while manoeuvring between headings, the OEM says. This improves health and safety for miners working underground. Less diesel usage in a mine thanks to diesel-free drilling can ease ventilation requirements, while also reducing associated diesel logistics and maintenance expenses. Using a mine’s existing electric infrastructure, the Sandvik driveline technology enables the battery to recharge during the drilling cycle. The battery will even recharge while Sandvik DD422iE is tramming downhill, using energy generated by the braking system.

Sandvik Leopard DI650i drill rigs improving health and safety at Stockton coal mine

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Two new Sandvik Leopard DI650i drills are reducing the carbon footprint, and improving the health and safety of operators, at the Stockton mine in New Zealand, mine operator Bathurst Resources says.

The operation’s previous drills used 90 litres of diesel per hour, but the Sandvik drills have cut that down to just 65 litres per hour, resulting in a reduction of over 67 kg of CO2 emissions every hour of operation.

After a year of operation, Bathurst has seen the positive air pressure in the cabs of these new drills effectively reduce airborne dust, leading to a healthier work environment for operators, the company added.

Stockton is the largest open-cast mine in New Zealand, delivering high-quality steelmaking coal for export. The operation is expected to produced 940,000 t in Bathurst’s 2025 financial year.

Sandvik introduced the Leopard DI650i, designed for larger hole sizes, in 2018, saying the DTH rig offered excellent fuel efficiency, improved safety and higher productivity in challenging rock conditions compared with competitor and predecessor products.

In addition to a powerful engine and compressor, the Leopard DI650i incorporates a highly ergonomic iCAB cabin, excellent serviceability, mobility and fuel economy, along with scalable automation packages to offer excellent overall productivity, according to the OEM. Pipe sizes range from 89 to 140 mm, depending on the size of the hammer. The maximum hole depth is 53.6 m when utilising the carousel option with pipe sizes from 89 to 114 mm. The capacity range of 403 kW Tier 3 CAT C15 diesel engine and reliable compressor is adequate for high-pressure drilling with 4-6.5 in DTH hammer sizes.

First Sandvik LH518iB battery-electric loader arrives at McIlvenna Bay

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The first Sandvik LH518iB battery-electric loader and supporting batteries have arrived at the McIlvenna Bay project in Saskatchewan, Canada, project owner Foran Mining has reported.

Back in 2022, Sandvik announced it would supply a fleet of 20 battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), including trucks, loaders and drills, for the project in what was its biggest battery-electric vehicle order to date.

Among this 20-strong fleet was seven Sandvik 18-t-payload LH518B loaders (since revised to iB 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.

Foran says the combination of the LH518iBs and TH550Bs will “showcase the next wave of battery-electric vehicles helping support a sustainable, decarbonised future”.

Sandvik launched the LH518iB in March 2023, becoming the first Sandvik underground battery machine equipped for full automation, being compatible with its AutoMine Lite and AutoMine Fleet offerings as well as its Manual Production Monitoring system. Sandvik’s patented self-swapping battery system on board the LH518iB, including the AutoSwap and AutoConnect functions, minimises infrastructure needs and enables the loader to return to operation significantly sooner than ‘fast-charge’ mining BEVs, the company claims.

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.

Sandvik to showcase digital, battery-electric and diesel-electric advances at MINExpo 2024

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Sandvik will introduce innovative new solutions and showcase its latest technologies at mining’s largest tradeshow, MINExpo INTERNATIONAL® 2024, in Las Vegas, including battery-electric and diesel-electric equipment to help customers improve their sustainability.

The OEM will have its latest innovations on display at the show, September 24-26, including its new Toro™ diesel-electric truck demonstrator and latest battery-electric concept surface drill rig.

Sandvik’s 21,000-sq.ft (1,950-sq.m) exhibit will demonstrate its vision for the “future of mining”, a theme that emphasises its focus on the technologies and solutions that will help customers mine more sustainably without compromising productivity or efficiency.

“As the mining industry helps drive the global green transition and decarbonisation efforts accelerate within our own sector, we continue to innovate within automation, digitalisation and electrification, key areas that empower our customers to mine more sustainably,” Mats Eriksson, President of Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions, said.

Digitalisation is poised to become even more vital in solving the industry’s ever-increasing challenges of safety, productivity and profitability. The centrepiece of Sandvik’s exhibit will be a 645-sq.ft (60-sq.m) immersive room, a sensory experience that will showcase the company’s end-to-end digital offering and other key technologies, the company says. MINExpo attendees can step into a mine control room and cap lamp room, explore Sandvik’s MineGame advanced simulation tool and discover technologies including Sandvik’s digital convergence system and collision avoidance system.

Sandvik is expanding its technology portfolio by developing a diesel-electric range of underground loaders and trucks to complement its leading BEV offering, expected to boost productivity, reduce total cost of ownership, improve availability and extend component lifetimes. Sandvik first showcased its Toro diesel-electric truck demonstrator to customers at a technology workshop in Turku, Finland, in 2022. Boasting a capacity of 60-plus-tonnes, the demonstrator has since undergone extensive performance testing and the Sandvik product development team is using customer feedback to ensure its future commercial offering meets industry needs.

On the surface drilling side, Sandvik will showcase its Sandvik DR411i rotary blasthole drill rig and Pantera™ DP1510i top hammer drill rig, as well as its latest battery-electric concept surface drill rig. On display for the first time outside of Finland, the down-the-hole BEV is the first in its size class, capable of drilling DTH holes up to 9 in (229 mm) in diameter and blending the autonomy of battery with the continuous endurance of power cable.

On the underground drilling side, the Sandvik DL422iE longhole drill will be on display together with Sandvik’s future direction for battery-electric underground drilling applications, a new rock drill offering and the latest in iSURE® and Sandvik DrillConnect capability. Underground drilling and Deswik integration for longhole mine planning will also be presented, alongside Sandvik ground support solutions including its ARI System, resin injection head, pump resin kit and mesh products.

Sandvik will display some of its latest rock tools at MINExpo, including the new CT55 and CT67 curved thread top hammer tool systems for surface bench drilling and underground longhole drilling, Golden Shank with unique corrosion resistance, push bore reamer system for underground slot hole drilling and Sandvik RR340 single seal roller bearing rotary drill bit. Sandvik will also launch new rock tools at the show, including a new DTH hammer and bit family and a new collective concept for its digital rock tools suite.

Sandvik’s parts and services exhibits will showcase the company’s comprehensive lifecycle support, blending the unparalleled OEM expertise of Sandvik service technicians with advanced technology to maximise performance and longevity for Sandvik equipment – whether it’s diesel, hybrid or electric, the company says. Sandvik will also present its latest developments within its suite of digital services, which leverage data and insights from its connected equipment.

For rock and mineral processing applications, the Sandvik booth will feature a display of Sandvik hydraulic hammers as well as the company’s latest lineup of high-capacity vibrating screens and feeders. Recent acquisitions enable Sandvik to offer one of the most comprehensive ranges of vibrating screens and feeders on the market, it says, with equipment capable of handling up to 8,000 t/h. MINExpo visitors will see the SL3672M, a double deck flat screen that measures approximately 12 ft (3.6 m) in width and 24 ft (7.3 m) in length and weighs around 33 t. Also on display will be Sandvik’s new screen condition monitoring and screening media management systems, designed to help operators maximise processing plant uptime and efficiency.

Representatives from Sandvik Financial Services will be available at the booth to discuss equipment financing opportunities.

Sandvik intelligent underground drill fleet heading to mine in Southeast Asia

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Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions says it will deliver a fleet of intelligent underground drills to a mining customer in Southeast Asia.

The order includes Sandvik DD422i development drills, Sandvik DS422i rock bolters, Sandvik DL432i longhole drills and a Sandvik DL422i longhole drill.

Deliveries will begin during the September quarter of 2024 and continue through the June quarter of 2025, Sandvik added.

“This mine already operates a large fleet of Sandvik intelligent development and production drills,” Manny Maloney, Vice President Sales Area South-East Asia, Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions, says. “This repeat investment now underpins the strength of our underground drilling offering and our long-standing partnership.”

Some of the Sandvik DD422i development jumbos feature Sandvik’s Dual Controls package, while others include Sandvik’s Platinum automation package. The Dual Controls package for Sandvik DD422i features dual drilling controls and split feeds for multitask drilling operations including boring, bolting and meshing. The Platinum automation package offers options for automatic boom movements and boom collision avoidance.

IGO and Perenti herald ‘drop-in’ battery-electric, autonomous drilling solution at Nova

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The confluence of automation and electrification in underground mining was spoken of many times at The Electric Mine 2024 event, in Perth, Western Australia, last month, with a whole themed session dedicated to it.

One of the best examples of the two trends converging was observed in a talk titled, ‘Electrification and Automation at IGO’s Nova Mine: Implementation of the Sandvik DL422iE Production Drill.’

In this joint presentation, Brandon Cooper, Senior Mining Engineer of Projects at IGO Limited, and Paul Linabury, Manager of Electrification at Perenti Contract Mining, outlined how this new electric and automated longhole drill could provide the entry point underground miners require to understand the practicalities associated with incorporating such new technology.

“This isn’t the heavy hitter for greenhouse gas or DPM (diesel particulate matter), but what it does is allow us to operate a battery underground and get familiar with it,” Cooper said of the Australia-first DL422iE deployment at Nova.

The Sandvik DL422iE is a fully-automated, battery-powered top hammer longhole drill designed for underground mass mining in 4 x 4 m or larger production drifts, Sandvik says. It can drill vertical and inclined fans and single or parallel Ø89-127 mm longholes up to 54 m in depth using ST58 and ST68 tube rods.

The drill’s electric driveline includes a battery package and electric motor to allow for zero emissions while tramming and also reduced thermal load. The DL422iE also features Sandvik’s patented Charging While Drilling technology; an innovation for reduced battery charging time without the need for additional infrastructure.

Barminco, part of Perenti, purchased the Sandvik DL422iE, which was commissioned and put to work at Nova in July 2023 as part of Barminco’s existing services contract, with the surface drilling remote capacities operationalised in February of this year.

Nova, itself, is a remote operation in the Fraser Range of Western Australia that has traditionally relied on large diesel generators for power. The company has progressively transitioned to renewable generation, which has been reinforced by a 10 MWh lithium-ion battery. These two, alongside the site’s synchronous condensers, allow Nova to produce enough renewable energy to power the production plant and underground mine when the sun is shining, according to Cooper.

This is important for the context of introducing an electric drill to the fleet that is powered off a 75 kWh sodium nickel chloride battery when tramming and the mine grid – via cable – when drilling.

While the electric drill introduction represented an Australia first, Nova has been trialling and deploying battery-electric equipment for several years. It has three Zed 70 Ti light utility vehicles (battery-electric conversions of Toyota Landcruisers) in its fleet from Zero Automotive, has trialled the Bortana EV – another electric light vehicle – has one BME ITC L120H battery-electric integrated tool carrier to its name and is expecting to add another machine to its fleet by the end of the year – a Normet Charmec MC 605 V(E) SD battery-electric emulsion charge rig.

This breadth and depth of experience allowed Cooper to look across the industry’s underground mine electrification equipment offering and draw some parallels at the event.

“Introducing a battery-electric drill has, at this stage, a lot more chance of being seamless and successful with far less operational changes needed to be made compared with a truck or a loader,” he said.

The proof of this statement was in the presentation, and some of the specific operational highlights he and Linabury outlined.

From initial deployment in July 2023 to the middle of May 2024, IGO had drilled 50,750 m with this rig, with Cooper saying the site typically drills longholes to 45 m lengths. When compared with the diesel-powered DL421 rig the operation was previously using, the DL422iE was 20% more productive than the DL421 rig’s 12-month average drilling rate of 5,000 m/mth.

Looking at the automated elements on board the Sandvik rig – the first battery-electric vehicle equipped with Sandvik AutoMine® for surface remote drilling and automation – Cooper highlighted higher metres drilled, reduced hole setup times and increased flexibility.

He provided some colour here: “Auto fan drilling enables the drill and blast engineer to put a drill design on a USB stick and give it to the operator, where the operator plugs it into the rig’s USB port to view a digital map of what they’re drilling. The rig itself will automatically test each planned collar location and alert the operator if a hole needs to move; allowing them to shift the collar and leave the toe in place, or shift and drill a parallel hole.” These amendments to the original plan are recorded, with the engineer able to analyse the information on the updated file later.

Following this process, the rig can be setup to drill an entire fan without any operator input.

The second automation advance Cooper highlighted was the ability to carry out drilling from the surface in a cab. The company has been using this facility to drill during shift change or during re-entry. “That feature is netting us 770 m on top of what we have been getting every month,” Cooper said. “And I don’t think we are taking full advantage of it just yet; I think there are more gains to be had.”

While the machine is meant for battery-electric tramming, Cooper said there had been glimpses of the rig’s ability to also drill off battery, relaying one occasion where an electrician was able to repair a “jumbo box” at the same time as the operator carried out a 25 m long hole using battery power.

The battery-electric rig has also required some changes to the way operators work, with Cooper noting that the 75 kWh sodium nickel chloride battery did not provide enough power for the machine to tram 3.3 km (on a 1:7 incline) from the bottom of the ramp to the top. Nova operators had got around this issue by carrying out an opportunity charge 850 m from surface by the rod-storage cuddy, allowing the operator to offload drill rods at the same time.

“These BEVs require changes to the way we work,” he said. “If we can integrate those changes into our existing work practices to minimise the changes to the operators, we will get a better result.”

Linabury, meanwhile, highlighted how the services provider was identifying the new risks and opportunities that were emerging from battery electrification during deployments such as this.

Examples included recognising the increased number of electrical isolation points on a battery-electric drill and creating a live line indicator to identify when current is running through these, charging the battery to below full capacity to make the most of downhill regeneration and more closely interrogating classifications given by systems such as the battery management interface.

In the Q&A session at the end of the presentation, Cooper summed up the IGO rationale for bringing this new battery-electric and automation-enabled machine into the Nova fleet: “As we have shown with the DL422iE, you can essentially drop this in and change very little about the way you operate normally, but at the same time you get a chance to play around with: ‘What does my emergency response look like for this new drill? How do my supply chains have to change for parts? How do my skillsets need to change for people? What do the operators need to be made aware of?’

“You can solve all of those problems, and a lot of those learnings are then directly transferable for when you start tackling the bigger problems of heavy machines.”

Such learnings would allow the company to have a much clearer picture of what it would take to fully electrify an underground mine in the future, he concluded.