SURFACE DRILLING
Allel added:“ It also allows us to automate mining trucks as well – and we have already created the world’ s largest OEM agnostic autonomous mine at Hancock Iron Ore’ s Roy Hill, using the system to automate 78 mixed brand mining trucks from Caterpillar and Hitachi; and last year we passed 200 Mt hauled with this AHS. As we have drills at many of the major mining operations globally – there is a lot of opportunity to work with other customers in this way – who may want to move away from full stack, truck-OEM supplied AHS.”
In terms of drill autonomy, Allel said the next level is incorporating AI to the point where the drill is able to some extent to carry out autonomous missions independently without any input from a controller. The drill will be able to drill the whole pattern on its own knowing what sequences it has to follow – and will be able to react to any unexpected changes in rock hardness or ore grade for example using measure while drilling technology – thanks to more powerful onboard computing combined with AI. And the drills using LinkOA will be able to interact with other autonomous machines – such as trucks but also explosives delivery and utility vehicles. If the ore grade is greater than expected, then you could alter the blasting pattern for example. This is the broad future mine capability that Epiroc is working towards.
Finally on manufacturing and parts supply and the global set up for drills – are there likely to be further developments or investments? Allel:“ The engineering and production hub for Pit Vipers very much remains in Garland, Texas; and for the crawler drills like the SmartROC T40, T45, and D65, in Örebro, Sweden. However, we have also invested heavily in India – and in 2025 we broke ground on a new production and R & D facility in Nashik there. The new site will develop, innovate and produce underground and surface equipment for mining and construction customers, and drilling will be part of that. In China, our Nanjing factory already produces rotary and crawler drills. One difference today is that in the past facilities like Nashik and Nanjing would have been focused on producing in many cases more basic models for local markets – today these factories are true strategic global supply hubs that help us serve customers worldwide along with our primary facilities in the US and Sweden. In addition, many suppliers of key components also produce them in these regions as well – especially in China.”
Bringing drilling focus to the surface
At CONEXPO 2026, IM also sat down with Petri Virrankoski, President of the Surface Drilling Division at Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions, based in Tampere, Finland. The rotary drilling, top hammer, DTH and rock tools are all distinct businesses and teams within Sandvik – partly reflecting the fact they are produced at different distinct locations. But clearly there are many synergies there – for example most large miners have rotary drills for primary production purposes but with a fleet of crawler drills for contouring and presplit drilling. Equally, many customers are buying Sandvik bits for use with Sandvik rigs for maximum effect.
Virrankoski said Sandvik does present a unified front when it comes to surface drilling when it comes to the customer.“ Actually, we work very closely together within Sandvik – and that includes the three areas you mentioned but also parts and service plus engineering as well – so across five divisions actually. We have a complete offering. But it is the sales areas who put it all together for the customer in terms of the front facing overall solution. But you are correct in the sense that Sandvik was traditionally a very underground focused company in terms of how we presented ourselves and how we were perceived. Around five years ago we really started within Sandvik to look at how we could drive more growth in the surface business and what we should focus on to do that. Hand in hand with that we began making much greater investment in these divisions – especially on the rotary side but also on the crawler drills – as this was the only way we were going to get our market share to the leading position we were aiming at.”
At the beginning he says it was led by the equipment divisions to create more momentum with the surface drilling business.“ And then we began unifying the divisions in terms of a common commercial strategy and began engaging with the sales areas in that way. We looked at questions like which are the best customers to work with to move the business forward, what markets are we going to focus on and what infrastructure do we need to put in place to better penetrate the surface market?”
He continues:“ And you are correct even six or seven years ago, we were quite underground focused and the bulk of our experience was from underground. But on surface, the customers are in many cases different and the market dynamics are very different. Surface customers include both the big mining groups but also a lot of smaller contractors. Then when you move to the infrastructure side there are a lot of dealers involved. So we made a big effort to learn more about the surface market in detail, establish new customer relationships; and dedicate more resources to it. Today the surface business is a major focus across the company – actually on a par with underground. We have taken the same successful approach we use in underground – working from an early stage in product development with customers; plus for new projects how we work closely together with mining houses, EPCMs and consultants to come up with an optimal solution for a particular site. And if course taking the success we have had for many years
Petri Virrankoski, President of the Surface Drilling Division at Sandvik with IM Editorial Director, Paul Moore
underground with AutoMine and applying that experience on the surface as well – plus we have our OEM agnostic solutions through UFR which allows automation of mixed fleets, and our digital solutions like Deswik. OPDB which is specifically developed to meet and manage the specialised needs of drill and blast designs for open cut mines. We now have an end-to-end digital offering for the full planning to execution workflow.”
On the product side, taking Sandvik’ s rotary drills, they have been completely redesigned along a modular platform which allows customers to start with diesel operation today and convert to electric later on if they opt to do so. It have deployed some important fleets already including a DR410iE fleet to Mongolia.“ The starting point for the crawler boom drills was already strong as we were already a leader, especially in top hammer – we were missing just a couple of sizes and products and we have been able
54 International Mining | MAY 2026