HIGH PROFILE
Sandvik Mining’ s mechanical cutting division has an offering that spans roadheaders, bolter miners, borer miners, haulage systems and rubber tyred vehicles( photo: Adam Lach)
A cut above the competition
feeding up to four bolts, resin cartridges and drill steels as part of a fully automated bolting process.
The division has guided for all its machines to be capable of teleremote operation by 2030; full automation capability is expected by 2040.
The second-generation Sandvik MX650 hard-rock mechanical cutter the company is in the throes of carrying out detailed design on – guided by ReThink Mining, and backed by Agnico Eagle, Boliden and LKAB – would combine all these technology developments to enable a“ step change” in mine development, according to Thomas Vallant, President of Sandvik’ s Mechnical Cutting division. The development of the Sandvik MN330 narrow reef production system for Anglo American – a project currently on ice
There is a lot to admire about the Sandvik Mining mechanical cutting division and having recently come back from the Zeltweg headquarters in Austria, IM is confident there will be even more to appreciate in future years.
The division and its products have stood the test of time: it will celebrate its 175-year anniversary in 2026 at the same time as several of the machines it produced in the 1970s continue to operate, far surpassing the typical 15-year( three-time) rebuild lifecycle. Its offering spans roadheaders, bolter miners, borer miners, haulage systems and rubber tyred vehicles, with an active fleet of 430 pieces of equipment; its services, logistics and parts footprint will soon include 10 different locations across Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe and North America.
The division is tied to more than coal, reflected in its 2024 revenue breakdown that had a 9 % contribution from industrial minerals and a 13 % contribution from‘ hard rock’( including tunnelling).
And beyond that, the division intends to grow its manufacturing capabilities externally, with components manufactured in Zeltweg currently destined for companies outside of Sandvik set to increase.
Three tech pillars
The mechanical cutting division is, like all manufacturers in this space, being shaped by the increased uptake and demand for solutions that are automated,‘ connected’( read: digitalised) and electrified.
On the latter, it has an advantage, with all its mechanical cutting products offering grid connection. In instances such as mine development where machines cannot tram via tethered cables, EU Stage V / US EPA Tier 4 Final compliant diesel engines are available. There is also talk of using biodiesel and potentially battery-electric drivetrains for this application in the future to further reduce emissions in development headings.
In terms of digitalisation, the company has engineered a production- and maintenance-related digital platform outside of the MySandvik framework to provide a fit-for-purpose, cloud-based solution to remotely connect equipment out in the field. The most advanced digital maintenance packages the company offers customers via special licences could soon see Sandvik Mining experts interpret machine data to advise of when to schedule maintenance, when to order spare parts and when to intervene for immediate troubleshooting.
One can look to the latest generation bolter miner, the Sandvik MB672, and the company’ s roadheaders for examples of the most advanced levels of automation currently available to customers.
A combination of the Roadheader Guidance System and CUTRONIC ® on roadheaders can see these machines automatically cut profiles with increased accuracy – a teleremote trial of such a setup was realised on a tunnelling project in Australia recently. The latest generation MB672, meanwhile, is equipped with a round magazine capable of automatically
Thomas Vallant, President of Sandvik’ s Mechnical Cutting division( Photo: Adam Lach)
despite a successful initial trial at Mototolo in South Africa – is also setting a baseline for future zero-emission, automated hardrock cutting options in height-constrained environments.
Coal continuity
It would be easy to deduce that the development of hard-rock cutting equipment within the mechanical cutting division was a direct response to some prominent EUbased investors rallying against companies with coal interests, but Vallant and his team have remained steadfast in their commitment to this commodity.
50 International Mining | JANUARY 2026