WORLD PROSPECTS
based Kinetic Logging Services , Canada-based 3D- P , and South Africa-based MineRP . Chile-based Mining TAG and Meglab , based in Canada , also came into the Epiroc fold in earlier July .
Speaking to IM just after the results came out , Helena Hedblom , Epiroc President and CEO , said the company had seen the automation , digitalisation and electrification trends observed across industry accelerate in these regions , among others , since the emergence of COVID-19 . “ We see that different regions are ahead in terms of different capabilities ,” she said . “ We have seen a lot around digitalisation and automation in Australia , and , in Canada , when it comes to electrification , there are a lot of things happening . South Africa is strong when it comes to software and , on top of that , there are some regional players serving the sector like Mining TAG . “ We , as Epiroc , can come with our global footprint and help these regional players go abroad and roll out the technology on a global level .”
These acquisitions have seen the company ’ s staffing contingent swell in the last year . At the end of June , Epiroc said it had 14,569 employees across the globe , compared with 13,967 a year earlier , tied mainly to these acquisitions . Indeed , the three companies acquired during the June quarter came with 430 employees in total .
At the end of 2019 , prior to the global onset of the pandemic , Epiroc had 14,268 employees on its books . While Hedblom acknowledged much of the staffing increase was on the back of acquisitions , she did say the company was ramping-up additional workforce in “ manufacturing , in supply chain and in service ."
And looking back to the rationalisation carried out across the company during the height of COVID-19 worries – which saw a notice of termination provided to 425 employees in Sweden and the consolidation of the manufacturing of
Helena Hedblom , Epiroc President and CEO exploration drilling tools in Canada – Hedblom
said the company had since repositioned itself for the type of growth it was now experiencing .
“ When we did the correction last year , we addressed a lot related to , mainly , admin and back office . With these acquisitions coming on board , of course , the majority of employees are technologyrelated people … software developers and service people to manage the technology out in the field .” And , lastly , when it comes to the capacity to keeping up with record orders , Hedblom said : “ We have a very flexible manufacturing setup where we do the final assembly , in house , and a lot of the pre-assembly is done by some external suppliers . That is how we are – and have always – managed swings in order volumes .
“ We can also add more capacity if needed in our assembly lines . We are not regionally limited there ; being able to use the different facilities we have in both the US and Sweden , in addition to China and India . We can balance that demand between the sites .” www . epiroc . com
FLANDERS & Tribe Tech developing automated RC drill rigs
International mining drill automation specialists FLANDERS Electric and RC drill rig manufacturing and engineering company Tribe Technology ( Tribe Tech ) both based in Perth , Western Australia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to co-develop the next generation of automated reverse circulation ( RC ) drill rigs for resource definition in mining .
Tribe Tech has put together one of the largest dedicated drill rig design engineering teams in the world to develop a world-first completely unmanned RC drill rig , the first of which is being manufactured in Tribe Tech ’ s Belfast , Northern Ireland facility for their first customer McKay Drilling , a Perth based drilling contractor .
Tribe Tech says the TTDS GC 700 rig removes all operators from one of the most dangerous manual operations in the mining industry . “ Currently being manufactured in our Belfast manufacturing facility , the rig greatly reduces workforce risk while increasing efficiency and productivity .”
“ FLANDERS are the global leaders in
Autonomous Drill Systems for blasthole rigs around the world ,” says Mike Lane , General Manager of FLANDERS in Western Australia . “ We ’ re very excited by the automation technology developed by Tribe Tech and delighted to be working together to bring our industry-leading drill control and monitoring technology to the world of RC drilling .”
Tribe Tech ’ s Managing Director Charlie King says the collaboration would position the two companies to enable the development and manufacture of the world ’ s first fully automated RC drill rig for the global mining industry . “ We see this as an opportunity to disrupt the market and accelerate the development and implementation of fully autonomous drilling for Tribe Tech ’ s customers globally ,” King says . www . flandersinc . com
8 International Mining | AUGUST 2021