IN CONVERSATION
H
Helena, during your 20 years at Epiroc,
you have had several roles including
divisional president, and becoming CEO
was a natural progression. As CEO, what
will your main priorities be?
The notion of sustainability and safety
has been a part of Epiroc for many
years. During these exciting times,
where innovation and rapid technological
advances have become a part of everyday
life, I will obviously continue focusing on
these aspects. Other important priorities
are innovation, the further strengthening of
our aftermarket services, and to reduce the
company’s overall carbon footprint.
Technology has brought significant
changes to the mining industry. How
has Epiroc become a part of this mining
revolution and what opportunities will
these technological shifts bring?
Three major technology shifts have taken
place in the mining industry over the last
few years. The digitalisation, automation
and the electrification of mining all
happened at almost the same time, and
it has offered Epiroc, a company that
thrives on innovation, with many new
opportunities.
Our intention is to bring solutions to
the mining industry that will improve
productivity (and at the same time make it
safer). Digitalisation enables an operation,
and especially an underground mine,
to be more pro-active and to plan for
maintenance, for example. When the fleet is
connected through technology, and there is
a problem, the fleet manager will know well
in advance that a failure is about to happen,
and he can deal with it immediately.
Digitalisation means that we can
transform a fleet of different equipment
and optimise that system. Once there is
transparency underground, it’s possible
to identify bottlenecks, and through a
systematic approach based on data and
real time information, make a decision
that will benefit the entire operation. That’s
the solution we bring to the industry, we
call it the 6 th Sense solution. We assist
our customers in digitising their mines
but also build on existing systems, as it is
www.equipmentandhire.co.za
elena Hedblom took over as
president and CEO of Swedish
OEM Epiroc on the 1st of March
2020. Hedblom, who has been with the
company for more than 20 years, replaces
Per Lindberg, who has decided to leave
his position after having successfully
established Epiroc as a listed company.
Before her new appointment, Hedblom
held the position of senior executive vice
president mining and infrastructure.
Automation of underground mining equipment will be one of Epiroc’s focus areas in
the future.
not always possible to suddenly change a
whole operation. this is one of our main focus areas for
underground mining equipment.
And automation is a part of that
productivity and safety drive?
Yes, automation is driven by safety (to
remove humans from the face and risky
areas) as well as a significant increase in
productivity. Orebodies are becoming more
complex; mines are getting deeper and
workers have to travel longer distances
to the face. Thus, from a productivity and
safety perspective, it makes sense to
remove the person from the cabin and
operate the machine remotely from a
control centre on surface, or even from
another country or region. Does a mixed fleet mean the equipment
and machines are different brands, for
example, an Epiroc drill rig, a Bell loader
and Caterpillar ADT?
Yes, exactly, but it could also be that some
machines are automated and that others
are still manually operated. What we are
developing now is a system to manage and
handle these variables. It’s one thing to do
it with only Epiroc machines, but a lot more
challenging to get it right with different
brands and developing so many different
interfaces and platforms. However, we
strongly believe in open protocols where a
machine will be able to function optimally
under another brand’s management system.
How far is Epiroc from automating
operation to such a level?
It is a reality right now. Epiroc started its
automation journey many years ago when
the company decided to standardise
their control systems. Since then we
have progressed to where Epiroc has
successfully automated an entire fleet
of Pit Viper open pit drill rigs in Australia
and that system will be rolled out to
other continents as well. The company’s
underground automation technology is
equally advanced, and we are currently
working on an entire system of machines
that can interact with each other, and
that will ultimately optimise the traffic
flow. Many clients have a mixed fleet of
equipment, and it’s a challenge managing
these different machines and at the same
time improving production. At the moment
Do you have to collaborate
with other OEMs?
We have to influence and attempt to set
a standard in the industry. Our research is
aimed at developing an advanced traffic
management system, no matter what
fleet of equipment a mine operates. The
question is: how do you optimise a mixed
fleet? How do you manage the system if it’s
an Epiroc loader and a Cat loader truck, for
example? With both interfaces, how do you
manage a system like that? Technology has
brought with it a need to collaborate with
all stakeholders, including rival OEMs. If our
client requires a system to handle a mixed
fleet, that’s what we’ll give him, regardless
of whether he operates only Epiroc
equipment or not. For us, that’s automation.
APRIL 2020
23