NORDIC TECHNOLOGY
shorter, faster measurements, as well as improve performance on the analytical side.
“ It is these improvements, plus the other evolutions in design to enable optimised elemental analysis processes, that ensure the IMACON 100 solution remains a sought-after product.”
Sandvik, Sleipner team up for‘ complete solution’ offering
Speaking of collaborations, Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions and Sleipner recently agreed to come together to provide customers with comprehensive packages combining drill rigs with lowbed trailers. The goal of the partnership is to combine the strengths of both companies to deliver increased efficiency, sustainability and satisfaction to mining customers.
“ This partnership with Sleipner allows us to offer even more complete solutions for our customers,” Petri Virrankoski, President of Surface Drilling at Sandvik, said.“ This also aligns perfectly with Sandvik’ s sustainability strategy by helping us reduce emissions caused by the use of our machinery, where the biggest share of emissions in our value chain are produced, while increasing productivity.”
Sandvik customers now have the opportunity to purchase Sleipner’ s mobility solutions alongside Sandvik’ s surface drill rigs as a complete package. Sandvik Financial Services will offer flexible financing options, allowing customers to take advantage of Sandvik Finance on bundle deals. The opportunities provided by the partnership are available worldwide, with the exception of Canada.
“ Sandvik is a natural choice for a global distribution partner for Sleipner, due to the synergies our combined solutions offer,” Jukka Koponen, CEO of Sleipner, says.“ We are confident that Sandvik’ s customers will benefit greatly from our mobility solutions. We are on a common mission to make mining more sustainable and improve customers’ competitiveness.”
The combined expertise of Sandvik and Sleipner will bring numerous benefits to customers, particularly operators that spend a lot of time moving their equipment, they say. By using Sleipner’ s mobility solutions with Sandvik’ s advanced drill rigs, customers can expect to spend less time tramming, drastically increasing the uptime of their drills.
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Scania trucks pass LKAB Malmberget cold winter test
Nordic suppliers and the miners themselves have also had tighter bonds – historically – than other mining regions, which has become especially important as the industry advances with adopting new automation, digitalisation and electrification technologies.
After approximately 5,000 km driven, LKAB recently confirmed that the first phase of testing with the fully-electric Scania Heavy Tipper truck above ground at the Malmberget iron ore operation has come to an end.
The battery-powered trucks are part of LKAB’ s ambition to electrify the vehicle fleet throughout the value chain, from mine to finished product. The Heavy Tipper came to Malmberget to be tested and developed on-site in close collaboration with Scania, in the unique environments that the operations entail.
Stig Hoffner, who has been test driving the truck since its inception in December 2022, says:“ Overall, it has functioned well mechanically and operationally. Above all, it’ s a completely different driver environment compared to diesel trucks – it’ s quiet and calm. Also, it requires less daily maintenance.”
One of the key issues in testing electric vehicles is that they should not only be better for the climate and work environment, but also be able to maintain the same productivity as their dieselpowered counterparts. To date, over 300,000 t of material have been successfully transported with the Heavy Tipper over the test period, with every load and shift logged to enable a thorough evaluation.
“ In terms of range, I’ ve driven about 15-20 loads per shift, and I
International Mining | MAY 2025