SURFACE DRILLING
Agnostic appeal
FLANDERS remains the leading supplier of third party autonomy on blasthole drill rigs , increasing its fleet every year and benefitting from its OEM-agnostic position , being able to automate Epiroc , Sandvik or Cat drills very successfully – and it has done so with many of the world ’ s largest miners . To give a recent example , late last year it embarked on a project to begin automation of the blasthole drilling fleet at a diamond mining operation in Botswana . The conversion of the first drill to autonomous operation , an Epiroc Pit Viper PV-271 , has now been completed , which will also have the distinction of being the first autonomous drill in Botswana .
The conversion to the ARDVARC system was carried out by FLANDERS ’ South Africa-based team working closely with local technicians and the mine staff . It marks the beginning of a new way for the mine to carry out drilling , with operators now monitoring the autonomous rigs from an airconditioned command centre well away from the high temperatures of the open pit itself .
Also in South Africa , in 2023 a fourth Sandvik DR410i rotary blasthole drill for a major platinum mine was converted to run with the ARDVARC drill control system at FLANDERS ’ Middelburg facility , in South Africa .
These are South African examples , but the company has had equal success in markets in Australia , Brazil , Chile and Peru . The ARDVARC solution improves drill productivity by up to 30 %, FLANDERS claims , and provides a significantly safer working environment for workers operating in complex or hazardous conditions . With its autonomous operating technology , FLANDERS helps its customers proactively optimise drilling and increase plant availability , it added . We caught up with Jim Elkins , Global Business Development - Drill Automation at FLANDERS at the recent SME MINEXCHANGE event in Phoenix , Arizona .
Q Talking about ARDVARC today – has it become more ‘ intelligent ’ and equally has it becoming more challenging to retrofit the system as the OEM drills have become more complex ? A ARDVARC and the technology behind it is continually evolving and improving , helped by the ever-increasing footprint that we have as the largest third party blasthole drill autonomy provider . Today we have over 150 autonomous drills running at 19 minesites – which include many owned and operated by some of the world ’ s largest mining companies . One valued client as an example has just announced that its copper operation in Peru has successfully deployed autonomy using FLANDERS technology on a third and fourth drill rigs , marking an important milestone for the mine . We have also deployed autonomy on drill rigs at their operation in Chile . Working with Tier 1 miners like these means we are able to upgrade the software regularly every six months and include
FLANDERS recently retrofitted an Epiroc PV-271 for autonomy at a Botswana diamond mine
best practices from these large mines . So our customers globally are benefitting .
Q Are there any particular changes that you would highlight in recent ARDVARC development ? A I think a major one is its increasing use with down the hole ( DTH ) drills . DTH was not so prevalent in blasthole drilling ten or even five years ago but we have seen a lot more of these out there – probably it is being used on about 20 % of the drills we see today . So we have adapted ARDVARC to handle that , and it has worked very well . Aside from DTH I would say we have made some major upgrades to our multi-pass drilling capabilities both semi and fully autonomous . Finally , deck forks have sometimes been
an issue for autonomous drilling – again because of our extensive global footprint we have been able to remedy these issues and introduce it in the latest ARDVARC software upgrade .
Q So why are these big miners continuing to choose FLANDERS over OEM-driven autonomy solutions ? A Obviously to flexbility automate any of their drills is a big part of it but also about productivity and performance . With the established customers that we have , they stay with us because of that performance . It also gives them some strategic balance when dealing with the OEMs on an overall fleet basis . Plus our retrofits are far less intrusive on the drills than they used to be – in the case of new drills in many cases the mines now instruct the OEM to send the new drill directly to our facilities for autonomy retrofit – we have seen this in Australia and South Africa for example .
FRAGTrack™ technologies with Cat ® MineStar™ Terrain .
The goal of this integrated workflow is to provide customers with high-fidelity rock property information enabling significant improvements to on-bench safety , drilling and blasting program accuracy and productivity , along with higher quality blast outcomes that generate enhanced mill performance .
In the future , the two companies intend to extend their collaboration to optimisation of the entire value chain , from mine to mill . This approach aligns with both organisations ’ ambitions to create sustainable solutions and services that will build the momentum for more intelligent and solution-driven mining ecosystems .
Sean McGinnis , Vice President of Technology & Global Sales Support , Caterpillar , said : “ Our customers are looking for every opportunity to optimise the productivity and safety of their mining and processing operations . By combining and leveraging the insights unlocked by Orica and Caterpillar ’ s technologies , we will be able to provide customers greater access and visibility to the data and information they need to make , better real-time business decisions .”
Rajkumar Mathiravedu , Senior Vice President , Orica Digital Solutions , said : “ The mining industry requires greater collaboration amongst
its leading technology players to build connected workflows across different domains to address the current issue of value-leakage arising from traditional and disconnected silos . Collaborative end-to-end ecosystems are critical to harnessing the full potential of advances in sensors , data processing and intelligence to enable the development of safer , more sustainable , and productive methods of resource recovery .
“ Orica Digital Solutions is excited to be working with Caterpillar across a range of domains as we aim to better connect the digital and physical worlds to give our customers more timely and actionable insights across their value chains .”
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International Mining | APRIL 2024