SURFACE DRILLING
Blasting into the future
Paul Moore spoke to the leading
rotary blasthole rig players on
where this market is heading, as
well as catching up on progress
with surface coring and sonic
drilling technologies
he blasthole drilling market is evolving
fast, with continued launches of new
automation ready models as well as a lot
of real progress with fully autonomous drill
fleets at mines like Penasquito, Kolomela, Roy
Hill, Yandi and elsewhere, some of which is
covered in this month’s automation article. Of
course, most blasthole drills are still operated
via a tethered power cable, so the next phase of
evolution has to be fully electric battery drills.
But certainly in the mining drill market there is
still some work to be done. IM spoke to Epiroc
Product Line Manager for blasthole drill rigs,
Heino Hammann. “Clearly there has been a lot
of progress in battery underground trucks and
loaders, and bringing that to surface mining is
definitely in the roadmap.” That said, in
underground drills, battery progress has been
slower. In its 2018 Annual Sustainability Report,
Epiroc stated: “Most of our underground drill
rigs have been electrified for many years, but
they are connected to electricity through a cable
when drilling. Diesel engines are then used for
transportation of the rigs. We believe that the
trend towards electrification will be stronger in
the loading and haulage equipment than for
drill rig.” This is mainly taking into account the
practicality of the work type breakdown of face
drills in that they are in one place for a period of
time but then have to move to the next working.
But for surface blasthole rigs electrification is a
no brainer, as they are drilling a large pattern of
holes in a regular sequence, and removing the
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36 International Mining | APRIL 2019
tethering would make operation a lot simpler as
there is no cable management; also meaning
automation of battery rigs would be a lot easier
than automation of cable attached rigs for
obvious reasons.
The issue here is that the batteries currently
are too heavy for the power required by these
surface rigs. Hammann stated: “We will very
likely get there within the next two years or so,
perhaps less, but as it is even for our smaller
DM30 rig, to reach the same performance you
would need battery that weighs 25 t. They need
to come down in size as well, not just weight. As
we have done with our underground battery
equipment we will partner with an external
specialist company to achieve this.” So it is a
case of watch this space, but it seems that there
will be news on battery blasthole in the not too
distant future.
New orders and customer successes
Moving on to mining orders, Epiroc has been
awarded a “significant” order from Anglo
American for its new copper mine in Moquegua,
Peru, Quellaveco. The diversified miner has
ordered multiple drill rigs and related
equipment to be used at the planned open-pit
copper mine as it looks to build an operation
with optimal safety, productivity and efficiency,
Epiroc said. The order totals about $44 million,
with most of the contracted value booked in the
December quarter of 2018 and a smaller portion
booked in the current quarter, Epiroc said.
A new Komatsu P&H 77XR drill operating in
Australia
Helena Hedblom, Epiroc’s Senior Executive
Vice President Mining and Infrastructure, said:
“We are proud to once again team up with
Anglo American and play a key role in making
sure that its new mine in Peru is operated in the
most productive, safe and cost-efficient manner
possible.” The order includes Pit Viper 351 and
SmartROC D65 drill rigs, BenchREMOTE remote
operator stations, rock drilling tools and HB
10000 hydraulic breakers.
“The machines incorporate state-of-the-art
technology features,” Epiroc said, adding that
operators are, for example, able to run rigs
remotely from a safe distance. Delivery of the
machines will start in early 2020 and continue
through 2021, in line with Anglo American’s plan
of first copper production during 2022.
Fluor is carrying out the project build at
Quellaveco as part of an EPCM contract. With a
reserve of 1,300 Mt at 0.58% Cu, Quellaveco is
expected to have a 30-year mine life at an
average production capacity of 127,500 t/d. This
could see the mine produce around 300,000 t/y
of copper.
Epiroc SmartROC D65 gets future
proofed
Epiroc is set to announce at the forthcoming
Bauma show in Munich in April a major “future
proofing” upgrade of its already well proven