SURFACE DRILLING
ecosystem . Extensive retrofit support for legacy systems gives mines the ability to automate older fleets and equipment that would otherwise need to be replaced or left out of an automation plan .
Mobius may be used as a Fleet Management System ( FMS ), or integrate with a legacy FMS . Software interoperability allows mines to continue using existing systems and customizations related to those systems . In addition to FMS , Mobius may also support other optimisation , monitoring and mining analytics programs . The Mobius Traffic Management System is developed and maintained by ASI Mining . ASI Mining ’ s majority parent , Autonomous Solutions , Inc has been a world leader in industrial automation since 2000 .
Codelco books FLANDERS for drill fleet retrofit
Codelco is converting Radomiro Tomic mine to an automated drilling operation as part of a three year strategic project and the conversions of the first six drills are expected to start in early 2022 .
For the project , US owned
Codelco is converting Radomiro engineering company Tomic mine to an automated
FLANDERS is expected to drilling operation as part of a deliver an automation three year strategic project system based on its ARDVARC Drill Control System . The system enables Codelco to operate three Epiroc Pit Viper 351 electric drills in full automation mode and three SmartROC drills in a semi-autonomous teleremote operation .
FLANDERS ’ ARDVARC product suite is designed to facilitate customers production and processes . The autonomous drill to scale up automation at their own pace and system will integrate into the existing fleet covers all aspects of drill automation , from semi- management systems at the Radomiro Tomic site , autonomous to tele-remote and autonomous and all drill data will be provided to Codelco for operation of a single piece of equipment to multimachine control and full-fleet automation using processes .
their own interpretation and use in downstream
Command Centre control capabilities . ARDVARC Lindor Quiroga , Managing Director of Autonomous comprises a suite of tools for
Codelco ’ s Radomiro Tomic mine , said : “ We need automating , analysing and optimising drilling to explore the automation of our mining
IM Editorial Director Paul Moore recently spoke to Tribe Tech Group MD , Charlie King , about its innovative autonomous RC drill rig project that is now rapidly taking shape between Northern Ireland and Australia
Q : When will you finish the prototype and will you work with local quarry operators in Northern Ireland for testing and trials ? Can you give more detail on launch customer McKay Drilling ? CK : We aren ’ t giving out a fixed release date but will say we are looking at shipping the first rig in 2022 . We also have an agreement in place with a local quarrying company for a site where we can do some initial commissioning ; but the rig will then see secondary commissioning once it arrives in Western Australia . We will be supporting the launch customer McKay Drilling , a Perth-based drilling contractor that is now part of Major Drilling , the world ’ s second largest contract drilling group . McKay have a solid reputation industry leaders in RC drilling , which is why we opted to partner with them – particularly they have expertise in deep hole RC and have been awarded numerous contracts for challenging projects that others would have had problems fulfilling . Our work with them will allow us to get the best possible data from our initial units in the field . McKay also have a lot of automation experience in-house already . They will be deploying the machine with a Pilbara Tier 1 iron ore miner client that will be the first to use the rig . Looking at the technology portion of the rig , we are already quite advanced with prototyping on the high risk elements of the design . Plus , even though the first machine will in effect still be a prototype , it will be a commercial sale and will signal the market availability of the model .
Q : Can you provide any detail on the scale of the Mallusk factory in terms of capacity ? CK : We are not here to produce thousands of rigs , we are here to produce the best quality and above all safest RC rigs out there and the first with an autonomy focussed design – removing workforce risk while increasing drill time by 100 %. Our technology testing and modelling so far have shown it has the potential to be 100 times safer and 70 % more productive than conventional RC drilling rigs . The factory capacity will be akin to the future market demand for advanced and unmanned RC rigs . There is already a niche there among the most progressive and safety conscious drilling contractors and miners and we intend to fill that niche . But the RC industry won ’ t switch over to autonomy overnight , it will be a gradual ramp up .
Q : There are already a large number of autonomous blasthole drill rigs operating – has mining company experience and success with those led to the demand in the RC sector ? CK : Absolutely – some of our customers already have experience with autonomous production drilling and have in-house autonomous operations teams . Plus we are partnering on some of the technology with FLANDERS , which has vast experience as an OEM agnostic supplier of autonomous production drilling technology through its ARDVARC fully autonomous control system . This has all brought learnings that make what we are doing possible . But it is also worth noting that there is a lot more complexity with RC compared to other drilling methods .
Q : Can you go into any detail on the autonomous elements that have been applied to the RC drilling sequence ? What was easy and what was hard to automate ? Are you looking at adding in-field sample analysis ? CK : Most of this is our core IP so is highly confidential – let me just say there is a huge degree of complexity in RC automation relating to the handling of rods and bits plus the cyclone sampling . You would typically have one or two people on the sampling ; one person operating the rod handler ; one person doing the actual drilling plus a supervisor plus maybe additional staff such as a geologist , health and safety professional or field assistant . We are very familiar with the challenges , however , due to projects our team members have worked on in previous roles ; plus the sheer weight of engineering hours we have put into the TTDS development and the lessons we have learned along the way . I will say that a standard RC rig has three to five people operating it ; whereas ours will have nobody on the drill pad at all and we have designed everything around that which has meant a colossal engineering project from the ground up . On sample analysis at the drillsite , not in our first generation design , but we do have some exciting R & D we are working on , but it won ’ t be available to the market with the initial rigs .
16 International Mining | APRIL 2022