SURFACE DRILLING power. But of course as batteries increase in density and power, there is the option to potentially drill shifts only using the battery pack as well.”
Caterpillar autonomous electric drilling in Peru
Last November, Caterpillar dealer Ferreyros, a leader in heavy machinery, and copper miner Minera Chinalco Peru, one of the most important mining companies in the country, launched a Caterpillar autonomous drill in Peru, which is operating in the Toromocho Mining Unit( Junín) with Caterpillar’ s MineStar Command for Drilling technology. Worldwide, it is also significant as it is the first deployment of Caterpillar autonomy for electric drills that has is remotely controlled from a remote operations centre, in this case the teleoperation station room of Chinalco Peru in Lima, to execute and supervise the autonomous drilling plan.
By adopting Caterpillar’ s solution, the Cat MD6640 electric drill performs inline drilling autonomously. This work, which includes displacement, levelling and drilling, is executed at the exact location and depth according to the objectives of the design and the operation plan, contributing to safety, precision and efficiency.
While the autonomous drill operates at the Toromocho Mining Unit, a controller designs the missions or tasks and supervises the operation of the autonomous system from the station in Lima, more than 150 km away. This gives the controller the possibility of covering several autonomous systems at the same time.
“ We expanded the scope of autonomy in mining in Peru, contributing with stateof-the-art technology to the objectives of our customers. This solution, together with Ferreyros, Minera Chinalco Peru and Caterpillar, sets a new standard in autonomy for Cat electric drills, which amplifies their positive impact,” says Santiago Basualdo, Manager of Ferreyros’ Large Mining Division.
“ The incorporation of this cutting-edge technology, hand in hand with strategic partners such as Caterpillar and Ferreyros, underscores Minera Chinalco Peru’ s commitment to operational excellence and safety. We continue to bet on innovation and investment in high-standard capabilities in our Toromocho mining unit,” said Willy Coronado, manager of Information Technology, Communications and Automation( TICA), of Minera Chinalco Peru. It is worth also highlighting Ferreyros’ pioneering experience in mining autonomy in Peru. For the fifth consecutive year, a fleet of 32 Cat autonomous 794 AC mining trucks is successfully operating in the south of the country at Anglo American’ s Quellaveco copper mine, contributing to greater safety and operational efficiency in the mine.
Autonomous Cat MD6640 electric drill controller at Toromocho in Peru
Caterpillar’ s MineStar Command for Drilling solution Ferreyros says provides tangible benefits, such as enhanced safety, by removing the operator from the risk area; greater productivity, by guaranteeing efficient and constant execution over time; and precision control that optimises blasting results.
Ferreyros has been present in the Toromocho operation, located at more than 4,800 m above sea level, since the construction of the mine, more than 15 years ago, and has an extensive fleet of highproductivity Caterpillar equipment there.
FLANDERS – comprehensive and leading autonomy for blasthole drills
Last year FLANDERS planned to roll out a comprehensive drill autonomy upgrade- a big driver of which was to allow customers with older systems to take advantage of your latest tech advancements – IM asked Joshua Goodwin, its Director of Autonomous Center of Excellence to outline what the status of that project is and how successful the program has been so far.“ At the end of 2025 we successfully completed the field validation of the newest iteration of our Autonomous Drill system; ARDVARC Next, which is now ready for deployment across our existing customers along with any new customers. We have seen solid improvements on the sites in South America that have already been upgraded with a pipeline to upgrade our other customers throughout 2026.”
What does the upgrade mean in a practical sense in terms of what new hardware and software is needed; and how complex a process is it, especially for older machines? Goodwin:“ ARDVARC Next unlocks the future for both our older machines, and our new machines by upgrading several key pieces of control hardware on the machine along with upgrading to a new onboard software architecture. The key upgrade is the replacement of the onboard PC, which can be completed within a few hours including updating the onboard software and transferring over machine configurations. For our older installation base, we update other hardware components to bring them in alignment with our current installation standard. We have developed the new system to be easily bring the older models up to this new standard.”
On the wider issue- as autonomous drilling has evolved- has FLANDERS seen the efficiency / productivity gap between manned drills and autonomous drills staying the same or widened as the software etc has become more advanced? Goodwin:“ As technology and autonomous systems have evolved, we have seen a constant increase in the gap between productivity between manned and autonomous drills. This increase is driven by improvements in the drilling algorithms resulting in higher effective penrates where the machines are able to work through changing ground conditions more efficiently. There have also been reductions in the times between operator interactions with the machines, leading to the autonomous machines having higher utilisation and not waiting unproductively for operator input. In the future we see this gap growing even more with the use of AI being able to determine what are the most optimal actions for the machines to take, for example the most optimal execution plan for a pattern. We have several projects under development as part of our intelligent operation suite to bring these to fruition.”
International Mining | MAY 2026 57