Round three years in the past, Sandvik made a serious assertion at its Capital Markets Day in 2022: The OEM was aiming to take a number one place within the floor drilling market.
Ultimately month’s Sandvik Capital Markets Day, Mats Eriksson, President of Sandvik Mining, stood on stage and offered the identical message: “We’re aiming at being primary on floor.”
The actual fact this aim now seems achievable contemplating in 2020 it was sitting on a floor drilling gear market share across the 20% mark is outstanding.
The addition of the Leopard DI650i down-the-hole (DTH) drill rig to this providing is seen as a key catalyst for this progress. On the time, it supplied new ranges of mobility, operator consolation and serviceability, in addition to an clever DTH management system that gave the corporate an opportunity to compete with different friends providing totally autonomous blasthole drilling.
Leveraging and adapting the corporate’s underground experience and know-how to realize this main floor mining place is one other contributor; it was additionally a recurring theme inside Eriksson’s most up-to-date Capital Markets Day deal with.
“We have now put in lots of R&D, lots of effort and concentrate on the floor facet by way of what we are able to do there, benefitting from our experience and information on the underground facet,” he mentioned in response to 1 analyst query from the ground.
“From the client discussions we have now already had, [it is apparent that] they’re seeing us as a good selection for floor drill rigs.”
Continued momentum
The numbers and information again this up.
Eriksson talked concerning the firm doubling its floor mining income over the 2019-2024 interval, in addition to rising its put in fleet by greater than 40%.
Notable contract achievements on this facet embody the availability of 34 floor drill rigs to US-based vendor Nation Boy Provide, LLC – the largest-ever single floor drills order for the corporate; the availability of 9 new floor drill rigs as an entire substitute for an ageing blended fleet on the Gruyere open-pit gold mine within the Western Australian Goldfields; and extra just lately the availability of 4 Sandvik DR412i rotary blasthole drills to ArcelorMittal Mining Canada for its Québec operations.
“Our drill rigs are performing higher than the rivals,” Eriksson remarked final month, including that he noticed double-digit progress going ahead.
Patrick Murphy, President of Rotary Drilling at Sandvik Mining, echoed this sentiment at The Electrical Mine 2025, in Santiago, Chile, on Might 14 throughout a presentation along with his colleague Nellaiappan Subbiah (Appearing Vice President, Product Growth & Product Administration) and Boliden’s Peter Wallin (Supervisor, Electrification Program).
“We have now gained vital market share progress over the past 5 years, and we’re poised to extend that going ahead,” he instructed delegates.
Tech developments
That very same presentation highlighted the expertise and innovation momentum the floor drilling enterprise has witnessed over the identical interval.
Inside the first couple of minutes of the ‘Electrifying the long run: Zero emission floor drills in mining’ presentation, Murphy had referenced the deliberate supply of the corporate’s first i-series cable-electric rigs to a buyer in Mongolia this 12 months – DR410iE rotary drill rigs destined for the Tsagaan Suvarga venture – and a profitable AutoMine floor drilling trial involving seven rigs – 4 blasthole and three pre-split rigs – at Antofagasta Minerals’ majority-owned Zaldivar copper mine, in Chile.
He additionally mentioned the corporate’s My Sandvik Onsite resolution, constructed on the famend OptiMine expertise platform, was taking maintain available in the market with greater than 1,700 floor drill rigs linked at over 600 mine websites around the globe. “Lots of that momentum has are available in the previous few years,” Murphy mentioned of those numbers.
The remainder of the presentation in Santiago centered on the supply of a modular floor drilling platform to help clients’ sustainability plans, in addition to the event of the battery-electric idea floor drill rig.
Subbiah (pictured beneath) mentioned: “We have now a transparent goal of constructing full electrified drilling options…from the pre-split growth drills we have now in Finland to the manufacturing drills we make in Alachua, (Florida). The plan is to impress the entire manufacturing line by 2030.”
This manufacturing line goes from the 89-mm-diameter market throughout to 406-mm-diameter market.
The modularity factor will likely be vital for this providing, giving firms the prospect to spend money on, say, a rotary drill rig – which has a 10-15 12 months life if maintained appropriately – powered by typical diesel means with the understanding {that a} ‘retrofit’ could also be on the playing cards additional down the road.
Subbiah mentioned as a lot throughout his time on stage: “We try to get that retrofit equipment that may consist of electrical motor, gentle starter, cable reel, management cupboard and all of these related elements wanted for the electrical transition.” The goal is to have an ‘in-the-field’ retrofit from diesel-to-electric happen inside the house of a “few weeks”, he added.
Co-development
Cable- and tethered-electric drill rigs aren’t new to the business; Wallin defined that the Aitik open-pit mine, in Sweden, has a full cable-electric fleet, for example.
What Sandvik is now proposing is a brand new technology of rigs which might be nimbler to function and simpler to take care of than what the business has gotten to know. These identical rigs are additionally far more vitality environment friendly than the platform Sandvik had within the Nineteen Nineties, Subbiah mentioned.
“We’re exploring all the probabilities of making an attempt to convey emissions down as a lot as potential within the coming years,” Subbiah mentioned. “We’re exploring some hybrid applied sciences; some various vitality sources.”
The corporate’s exploration thus far has led to the event of that battery-electric idea floor drill rig. This rig combines the pliability of battery operation with the endurance of an influence cable, in line with Sandvik. The on-board battery pack, which lasts for as much as one hour of drilling or as much as seven hours of tramming, is primarily meant for tramming and drilling particular person holes, whereas the majority of manufacturing depends on greater than 180 m of tethered 37-mm-diameter cable.
Along with elevated freedom of motion and suppleness, the advantages of battery operation additionally embody greater utilisation charges as a result of the rig can instantly begin drilling at a brand new location whereas the cable continues to be being arrange. The extra manageable tether, due to its easy setup with automated tightening and smaller cable diameter, serves to make the cable operation as easy as potential too.
Boliden’s Kevitsa mine, in Finland, has been placing this rig (see beneath) to the check, beginning up in April and, by Might 14, having drilled 6 km.
“Fairly quickly we’ll end the trial at Kevitsa after which transfer to commercialising the platform,” Subbiah mentioned, including that by the point the subsequent The Electrical Mine occasion rolls spherical (Might 26-28, 2026, in Lisbon, Portugal) he and his colleagues ought to have extra to say on this plan, in addition to the corporate’s “hybrid” drilling methods.
Murphy, in the meantime, was adamant that Boliden’s involvement on this venture had been basic to the progress made thus far.
“We get lots of our nice concepts once we co-develop with clients,” he mentioned.
Take a look at pit differentiator
Such a buyer collaboration has been part-and-parcel of Sandvik’s underground mining developments through the years, with its underground check mine in Tampere, Finland, performing because the proving floor for turning R&D and conceptual considering right into a actuality.
The floor mining division is now leveraging the Floor Take a look at Pit – a brand new floor mining check mattress positioned 40 km northwest of the underground check mine – to do precisely the identical. The battery-electric idea floor drill rig was first put by means of its paces at this facility.
This location simply exterior of Tampere was chosen because of the “good rock” availability, the flexibility to supply vital scale the place the corporate might check out all growth and rotary drill rigs as much as the DR413 class concurrently offering buyer showcases each on electrification and automation, the flexibility to cross-fertilise underground learnings from the prevailing underground check mine with floor drilling developments, and the continued improvement of current and new Sandvik floor mining engineers.
The corporate already has a number of rigs, each growth and rotary, on the web site, with inner and customer-focused testing going down.
“We have now performed a number of thrilling expertise developments there,” Murphy mentioned in Might.
Additional automation of the drilling course of – together with the cable administration operate required for tethered-electric rigs – is being examined at this facility, together with developments in autonomous operation and the usage of various energy sources.
Petri Virrankoski, President of the Floor Drilling Division, confirmed the significance of this testing facility when IM visited the underground check mine in December 2023: “Having a machine that may play in a real-life sandbox could be very totally different to displaying a mannequin on a display screen.”
This week, Eriksson was equally effusive concerning the function of the ability by way of capturing future market share within the floor mining market and convincing clients concerning the futureproofed options the corporate is growing.
“For years, our underground check mine has been a singular asset for validating gear efficiency earlier than supply, in addition to for R&D, coaching and buyer collaboration,” he instructed IM. “With the inauguration of our new Floor Take a look at Pit, we’re now capable of provide the identical worth to our floor drilling clients.”
Sandvik beforehand examined its floor drill rigs earlier than supply, however the brand new facility – located in a former quarry – presents much more life like and demanding rock circumstances, intently mirroring these at many buyer websites around the globe, Eriksson (pictured talking on stage, beneath) added, saying it allowed the corporate to copy real-life working environments with “distinctive accuracy”.
Each the underground check mine and the Floor Take a look at Pit allow the corporate to transcend commonplace gear testing.
“They function innovation hubs the place we are able to develop, validate and exhibit cutting-edge applied sciences in automation, digitalisation and electrification,” Eriksson mentioned. “These environments permit for full-process simulations and end-to-end optimisation throughout our total providing – rotary drilling, floor help, rock instruments and extra.
“Moreover, these websites create alternatives for deep collaboration – not simply with our clients, but in addition with educational establishments, expertise companions, startups and analysis networks. The check environments additionally function venues for hands-on coaching, buyer demonstrations and high-impact launch occasions, offering an immersive and genuine expertise.”
Eriksson seen the brand new Floor Take a look at Pit as a “vital differentiator” within the floor drilling house, offering the corporate and its shoppers confidence within the reliability, security and productiveness of its options.
He added: “The Nordic rock circumstances are among the many hardest on this planet, extraordinarily onerous and abrasive, which makes them preferrred for stress-testing new applied sciences.
“If our gear performs right here, it would carry out wherever.”
Strategic focus
Near 18 months after the corporate introduced plans to develop the Floor Take a look at Pit, it’s now investing in its floor drilling capabilities with the introduction of a brand new manufacturing line again at its manufacturing unit in Tampere.
Sandvik mentioned the transfer reaffirmed its strategic concentrate on floor drilling, permitting it to extend manufacturing capability by as much as 30% whereas considerably shortening lead occasions for purchasers.
Representing one of the crucial vital improvement tasks for floor drilling gear in recent times, it might assist extra intently combine the R&D, product improvement and supply processes on this a part of Finland.
It features a “complete” redesign of the manufacturing facility structure and workflows, modernisation of useful resource and operational planning, and enhanced security and ergonomics, the corporate says.
“This funding not solely expands our manufacturing capabilities however, extra importantly, improves our potential to serve clients sooner, extra flexibly and with higher predictability,” Eriksson mentioned within the information launch on this funding.
The revamped facility is scheduled for completion by the tip of 2025.
