IM 2020 April 20 | Page 64

SURFACE DRILLING technology experience. It was also using top quality components, and it has carried this forward to the business today. Some 70% of Revathi drill components are still imported from suppliers in the US including motors, pumps and some steel structures as well as Cat 18 and Cummins QSK series engines. Moving on to the India market, it is very price sensitive – major users such as the largest coal mining company Coal India, NMDC and SCCL, (and major contractors they use like Thriveni) want highly robust models that can keep operating with a minimum of maintenance and be serviced easily using simple mechanical techniques. It is not yet a market with a lot of interest in digitalisation or automation due to the much higher prices involved and with TCO over the life of the mine not the major factor in tenders. Naveed Shaikh, REL Global Manager - Sales & Marketing, told IM: “REL drills are very robust, with the highest build quality, as well as being rugged and very long lasting but also with better lifecycle costs as well as being straightforward to maintain. Indian miners want the drills to drill, without complications or even any issues with auxillary systems. And once you start putting sensors on a drill they can be affected by dust, dirt and water. There are many examples where sensors have failed on drills used in India and they have simply not been replaced. This is the reality of the market.” Semi-autonomous and line of sight drills have been used in India but have not caught on. Currently Revathi has about a 50% market share in India and Epiroc about 50%. The big seller for Revathi is the C650 model, described as “a crawler mounted, multi pass, hydraulically operated, rugged” model supplied as both a rotary (159 to 228 mm diameter holes) or DTH drill (152-203 mm) and allowing holes of up to 54 m depth. This competes mainly against the Epiroc DM30 II and DM45 models, many of which are made in China, also for rotary or DTH drilling and for 140-200 mm holes. Other OEMs like Sandvik and Caterpillar currently only have very minor market shares in the country. As the Indian market is quite saturated, REL has now started to look again at the overseas market. Its background here dates to 1991 during its control by Atlas Copco India when some drills were sold to Jordan Phosphate Mining Company. In the remainder of the 1990s some 168 drills were sold mainly to markets in the Americas under the Atlas Copco brand but built in India. Then came the mentioned tie-up with Bucyrus. Once that came to an end and REL went out alone, it made the decision to focus on the home market first. The drive to look globally once more started in 2017/2018. This includes other markets that appreciate simpler/robust and cost competitive machines but also those that want autonomous capability on these types of drills. There were 60 International Mining | APRIL 2020 already REL drills in Indonesia, but the potential market is huge – Mongolia and other Central Asian countries, the Middle East, and many parts of Africa and Latin America. REL recently received its first order in Botswana for a 100% remotely Drill Command Centre operator in Brazil simultaneously operating four multipass surface drills (two screens per drill) from two different OEMs equipped with FLANDERS ARDVARC operated C650 H autonomous model, which is being deployed at the huge De Beers Botswana Jwaneng diamond mine and operated from a control room at the top of the pit. The customer is the contractor Basil Read and if this unit performs well, the contract allows for another five. REL’s partner in automation is Indiana, USA- based FLANDERS, already globally well known for providing autonomous drill solutions, namely its ARDVARC system and umbrella FREEDOM for Drills solution used at a number of global mines like Iron Ore Company of Canada, Kolomela and Roy Hill on a number of different OEM machines (see FLANDERS section). The agreement will see FLANDERS apply its technology on both ex-factory REL drills as well as collaborating on R&D with REL going into the future. One important aspect to REL’s desire for its drills to remain robust is a decision to house automation sensors within the drill structure as opposed to being externally mounted. In addition, the sensors are transducer-based which is more user friendly. Of course the company is still offering its traditional mechanised hydraulic drills to the overseas market. Contractors are a key potential market given that drills may be utilised for a number of years on different sites placing different demands on the machines. Africa’s largest cement producer Dangote in Nigeria is one recent customer for the non-auto C650 H. deployment of advanced control and automation technologies. Based out of the US, FLANDERS’ flagship drill automation product, ARDVARC, is today deployed on over 100 drills, including 14 different drill models, across eight different countries. The ARDVARC drill automation system is agnostic to any drill OEM, with an open architecture platform allowing for customisation to meet unique customer requirements. Three system levels, ranging from a base control platform to full drill automation, allows multiple solutions to fit specific site needs. As mines move from manual to automated processes, ARDVARC fully autonomous is trending as the most popular solution. This development began with semi- autonomous development that began in 2005 in southeastern Arizona. “Continuous development has occurred over the last 15 years by applying best practices learned from major multinational mining companies who have invested in FLANDERS technology. These improvements have taken place with the drills in production environments not in specialised optimal manufacturing conditions.” The FLANDERS fully automated drill sequence includes auto level, auto tram, numerous way points, live refuelling and water in addition to multipass and angle drilling applications when needed both in rotary and hammer drilling configurations. FLANDERS automation reduces variability in operator performance, increases safety, promotes increased utilisation and productivity and ultimately optimises fragmentation. A recent case study shows the FLANDERS ARDVARC system outperforms the FLANDERS’ automation drill recipe Specialising in drill automation and retrofits for both hydraulic and electric drills, FLANDERS describes itself an expert in the development and