UNDERGROUND DRILLING
A tech fanfare
Mine Master says the FLP1410 is the only low-profile drill rig on the market that can be equipped with state-of-the-art automatic drilling
There are plenty of examples of underground operators leveraging the new smarts and hardware on offer from OEM and solution providers . Dan Gleeson details some of these
The confluence of automation and electrification in underground mining was spoken of many times at The Electric Mine 2024 event , in Perth , Western Australia , in May , with a whole themed session dedicated to it .
One of the best examples of the two trends converging was observed in a talk titled , ‘ Electrification and Automation at IGO ’ s Nova Mine : Implementation of the Sandvik DL422iE Production Drill .’
In this joint presentation , Brandon Cooper , Senior Mining Engineer of Projects at IGO Limited , and Paul Linabury , Manager of Electrification at Perenti Contract Mining , outlined how this new electric and automated longhole drill could provide the entry point underground miners require to understand the practicalities associated with incorporating such new technology .
“ This isn ’ t the heavy hitter for greenhouse gas or DPM ( diesel particulate matter ), but what it does is allow us to operate a battery underground and get familiar with it ,” Cooper said of the Australia-first DL422iE deployment at Nova .
The Sandvik DL422iE is a fully-automated , battery-powered top hammer longhole drill designed for underground mass mining in 4 x 4 m or larger production drifts , Sandvik says . It can drill vertical and inclined fans and single or parallel Ø89-127 mm longholes up to 54 m in depth using ST58 and ST68 tube rods .
The drill ’ s electric driveline includes a battery package and electric motor to allow for zero emissions while tramming and also reduced thermal load . The DL422iE also features Sandvik ’ s patented Charging While Drilling technology ; an innovation for reduced battery charging time without the need for additional infrastructure .
Barminco , part of Perenti , purchased the Sandvik DL422iE , which was commissioned and put to work at Nova in July 2023 as part of Barminco ’ s existing services contract , with the
surface drilling remote capacities operationalised in February of this year .
Nova , itself , is a remote operation in the Fraser Range of Western Australia that has traditionally relied on large diesel generators for power . The company has progressively transitioned to renewable generation , which has been reinforced by a 10 MWh lithium-ion battery . These two , alongside the site ’ s synchronous condensers , allow Nova to produce enough renewable energy to power the production plant and underground mine when the sun is shining , according to Cooper .
This is important for the context of introducing an electric drill to the fleet that is powered off a 75 kWh sodium nickel chloride battery when tramming and the mine grid – via cable – when drilling .
While the electric drill introduction represented an Australia first , Nova has been trialling and deploying battery-electric equipment for several years . It has three Zed 70 Ti light utility vehicles ( battery-electric conversions of Toyota Landcruisers ) in its fleet from Zero Automotive , has trialled the Bortana EV – another electric light vehicle – has one BME ITC L120H battery-electric integrated tool carrier to its name and is expecting to add another machine to its fleet by the end of the year – a Normet Charmec MC 605 V ( E ) SD battery-electric emulsion charge rig .
This breadth and depth of experience allowed Cooper to look across the industry ’ s underground mine electrification equipment offering and draw
some parallels at the event .
“ Introducing a battery-electric drill has , at this stage , a lot more chance of being seamless and successful with far less operational changes needed to be made compared with a truck or a loader ,” he said .
The proof of this statement was in the presentation , and some of the specific operational highlights he and Linabury outlined .
From initial deployment in July 2023 to the middle of May 2024 , IGO had drilled 50,750 m with this rig , with Cooper saying the site typically drills longholes to 45 m lengths . When compared with the diesel-powered DL421 rig the operation was previously using , the DL422iE was 20 % more productive than the DL421 rig ’ s 12-month average drilling rate of 5,000 m / mth .
Looking at the automated elements on board the Sandvik rig – the first battery-electric vehicle equipped with Sandvik AutoMine ® for surface remote drilling and automation – Cooper highlighted higher metres drilled , reduced hole setup times and increased flexibility .
He provided some colour here : “ Auto fan drilling enables the drill and blast engineer to put a drill design on a USB stick and give it to the operator , where the operator plugs it into the rig ’ s USB port to view a digital map of what they ’ re drilling . The rig itself will automatically test each planned collar location and alert the operator if a hole needs to move ; allowing them to shift the collar and leave the toe in place , or shift and drill a parallel hole .” These amendments to the original plan are recorded , with the engineer able to analyse the information on the updated file later .
Following this process , the rig can be setup to drill an entire fan without any operator input . The second automation advance Cooper highlighted was the ability to carry out drilling from the surface in a cab . The company has been using this facility to drill during shift change or during re-entry . “ That feature is netting us 770 m on top of what we have been getting every month ,” Cooper said . “ And I don ’ t think we are
8 International Mining | JULY 2024