WORLD PROSPECTS
Robit helping foster Boliden’ s‘ green values’ at Kevitsa
Boliden Kevitsa’ s polymetallic mine in Sodankylä is one of the largest in Finland, with the operation being an integral part of the company’ s aim to carry out responsible mining, provide circular economy solutions and produce critical metals for the green transition.
The bedrock at Kevitsa is demanding in all respects. The rock is both tough and extremely abrasive, according to Juha Ranta, Drilling Development Coordinator at Boliden Kevitsa.
“ The mixture of various ore zones, wall rock and waste rock has formed over thousands of years,” Ranta says.“ Alongside the copper and nickel, there is cobalt, platinum, palladium and gold, and each zone behaves differently when drilled.”
The natural conditions in Sodankylä don’ t make mining any easier either. Ranta explains:“ In winter, the groundwater in the pit is completely frozen. The hammer must operate just as reliably at-40 degrees as it does at + 35 degrees in the summer. That’ s a tough combination for any equipment.”
Technologically, Kevitsa is a state-of-theart mine. Production drilling is conducted almost entirely by remote control. From the control room, operators monitor the drill rigs working in the pit around the clock.
Since early 2025, Robit’ s H8 DTH hammer has been tested and developed at Kevitsa in close cooperation with Boliden, according to Robit Sales Director, Kimmo Kangas.
“ The feedback from the operators has been encouraging: the H8 is easy to drill with, penetration rate is good and durability looks promising,” Kangas says.
The H8 hammer has been tested with two different 229 mm drill bits to optimise the combined performance of hammer and bit for Kevitsa’ s conditions.
The H8 is by no means the first hammer to be tested in Kevitsa’ s demanding rock. Tools that perform well elsewhere have often revealed weaknesses in Lapland.“ Here, for example, rock hardness and the way the impact energy bounces back from the rock can be very different from what you encounter in other mines,” Ranta notes. Cooperation with Robit’ s product development team has been close. Ranta added:“ Whenever we’ ve found a component that doesn’ t last, we’ ve sat down together to decide what to do about it. Do we change the material or redesign the part completely? Recently, we’ ve focused on improving the hammer’ s wear life, first the‘ innards’ and now increasingly the durability of the hammer body.”
At Kevitsa, the“ Marathon” version of the H8 hammer is in use, featuring a wearprotected outer casing. The goal is to extend service life and reduce both downtime and spare part consumption.
Boliden works systematically towards environmentally friendly and cost-efficient mining. Ranta explains:“ The drilling tools are one part of that. With the right tooling, you
can achieve substantial cost savings, both in the equipment itself and in fuel efficiency.
“ Equipment durability and reliability have a direct impact on cost per drill metre. As wear resistance improves, material flows – and therefore costs – go down.”
He added:“ New surface treatment methods also allow us to make the materials more wear resistant. Reliability improves when components that have proved weak are reshaped and redesigned.”
Testing the H8 hammer at Kevitsa is part of this overall effort.
“ With measures like these, we keep moving towards economical mining, with green values firmly in mind,” Ranta concluded. www. robitgroup. com; www. boliden. com
Hercules heads to Canada
The first Hercules truck bed in Canada is ready to go to work at one of the Country’ s largest iron ore mines, in Quebec, with Schlam, now owned by Italy-based USCO ITR, recently reporting on the successful delivery.
To navigate Quebec’ s narrow highways, this bed was delivered in three pieces and then reassembled on site under the watchful eye of Schlam’ s Rick Drewes.
The refined three-part design by the Schlam engineering team, is designed to meet site-specific requirements, increase productivity and keep costs down, the company says.
Schlam is renowned for engineering highperformance mining truck beds and buckets for leading Tier 1 miners worldwide, covering payloads from 100 tonnes and up. Since the first Hercules mining truck bed was built in 2010, the Hercules bed has been deployed across diverse mining environments – from Australia’ s deserts to Kazakhstan’ s plains and now into northern Canada – consistently enhancing payload efficiency and productivity, according to Schlam.
6 International Mining | FEBRUARY 2026