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