SURFACE DRILLING
Paul Moore looks specifically at
progress in the blasthole
drilling sector, with all the key
OEMs making major strides in
new models, new market focus
areas and of course, automation
Multipass potential
I
n the autonomous drilling market, Epiroc
remains a market leader, with the most
advanced platform and the most active sites.
IM spoke to Automation Director, Surface Mining,
Tyler Berens to get an insight on where things
now stand and what is now possible. What is
interesting about Epiroc’s approach is that its
automation journey with customers is dynamic.
As a lot of data and analytics comes in from
minesites, new lessons are learned which lead to
the company sending out software updates for
the AutoDrill 2 system, itself managed by the RCS
5 command and control system.
AutoDrill 2 was originally launched to detect
the rock when the bit touches the ground and
start air, dust suppression, rotation and feed to
collar the hole. After the collared distance has
been met, this control will adjust air, dust
suppression, rotation and feed to a drilling
setting. AutoDrill 2 will apply optimal pulldown
and rotation to drill as fast as possible without
stalling the rotation or getting stuck. Once the
target depth has been reached, AutoDrill 2 will
clean or flush the hole, shut off the air and dust
suppression, and the return the bit to a tramming
position. AutoDrill 2 provides the consistency of
drilling to the correct hole depth, including water
flow to maintain the hole so it does not collapse.
The most recent software update to AutoDrill 2
dealt with how the drill reacts to drilling on
broken ground not just consolidated rock. This
has actually led to productivity gains, 4% at one
site and 6% at another which can make a
International Mining | APRIL 2020
massive difference over an extended period of
time. Epiroc can now use its technology to
analyse different ground conditions across
different areas of the same mine or different
mines and commodities, and actively adapt the
automation solution to each situation.
Looking at the market traditionally all the big
gains and contracts for autonomous drilling have
either been in iron ore with companies like BHP,
Rio Tinto, FMG, Vale, IOC, Ferrexpo and others; as
well as the big copper mines in Chile and Peru –
Quellaveco the new Anglo operation will deploy
an autonomous Epiroc fleet for example. Coal has
traditionally used tethered multipass drills with a
focus only on production and not a lot of interest
in automation. However, this is changing – South
Africa’s Exxaro has a Pit Viper running
autonomously now using RCS 5 with plans to
expand the fleet, and in east coast Australian
coal Epiroc also now has autonomous drills
running.
In market trends, Berens says that for some
years there was interest in taking a stepped
approach, perhaps starting with line of sight and
building autonomy from there, but today there is
much more confidence from customers, backed
up by years of data and analytics from existing
auto fleets, to the point where they are happy to
go from conventional straight to full autonomous
in discussions. Berens estimated that as far as
Epiroc is concerned over 75% of its automation
projects consist of setting up remote operations
centres and commissioning autonomous fleets.
Komatsu’s new ZT44 drill is its first Tier 4
solution utilising a Cummins QSK19 with 800 hp
Of course there are still challenges. The drilling
part of the smart mine is still managed like an
island, with trucks and other areas of automation
dealt with separately. If the industry can manage
automation across fleets in a more unified way
this will save customers and OEMs investment
and time.
Working with ASI Mining, in which Epiroc now
holds a significant stake, the two companies
have had a lot of discussion about a true shared
blueprint for interoperable autonomy across
entire fleets including trucks, drills and light
vehicles bringing value chain wins but also at a
technical level streamlining everything and
making the autonomous fleet more interactive.
ASI’s mine-wide Mobius command and control
platform is at the heart of this, and some
announcements on this type of approach are
expected later this year.
Network market developments are also
important, as more surface mines switch to LTE,
Epiroc is making sure it is ready for that and
already has drills running in LTE networks to take
learnings into new business once it becomes
more widespread.
Berens also said there is now increasing
interest from big mining contractors in drill
automation, as they now realise they have to find
their space in autonomy (the same is true with
trucks as well). Trials are already ongoing with
Epiroc autonomous drills and contractors,
helping increase understanding of how
automated drills can be used effectively under a
contractor business model. Part of this is looking
at the automation options from more of an OPEX
standpoint across the life of contract.
At SME’s MineXchange Annual Conference in
Phoenix in February 2020, Berens discussed
optimisation in blasthole drilling from the specific
standpoint of automation learnings. Questions
like what are the reasons large, medium, and
small mining houses are enabling drill
automation? Where is the value found
throughout the mining processes? How is data
being used to drive these decisions?
Optimisation insights no longer require human
interaction – automated drills are now making a
real impact in mine value chains. Epiroc
customers are walking through structured
models to properly develop and deploy
automated drills into their operations with great
success. But these change management
blueprints also continue to mature into
repeatable processes for each mine to capitalise
on previous learnings. This is where the insights
that automation brings really transitions into
tangible results. The attached slides show a chart
summarising how drill productivity and