Category: Equipment & Technology

Roughly nine months after reaching the 4-billion-tonne (4.4-billion-ton) autonomously hauled milestone, trucks equipped with Cat® MineStar™ Command for hauling have now moved over 5 billion tonnes (5.5 billion tons), the OEM says. Cat autonomous trucks are on pace to eclipse previous record totals of materials hauled in a calendar year, projected to be more than 1.4 billion tonnes (1.57 billion tons) in 2022. Currently, more than 550 mining trucks are equipped with Command for hauling, operating across three continents. Over the last nine years, trucks equipped with Command for hauling… Read More Here

Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions has introduced its AutoMine® Concept Underground Drill, the company’s second technology demonstrator for its future autonomous mining vision. The AutoMine® Concept Underground Drill is a fully autonomous, twin-boom development drill rig capable of drilling without human interaction. The cabinless battery-electric drill can plan and execute the entire drilling cycle from tramming to the face, setting up for drilling, drilling the pattern and returning home to charge for the next cycle. Less than two years after introducing the AutoMine® Concept Loader – the first fully autonomous underground mining machine built specifically for automation – Sandvik has expanded its vision from autonomous mucking to autonomous drilling with its AutoMine® Concept Underground Drill. “We’re continuing… Read More Here

Iron-ore major Fortescue has announced a $6.2-billion investment by 2030 to eliminate fossil fuel use and achieve real zero terrestrial emissions across its iron-ore operations. The miner said in statement on Tuesday that the investment would eliminate Fortescue’s fossil fuel risk profile and enable it to supply its customers with a carbon-free product. The majority of the capital will be spent in 2024 to 2028, and will include the deployment of an additional 2 GW to 3 GW of renewable energy generation and battery storage and the estimated incremental costs associated with a green mining fleet and locomotives.… Read More Here

Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions has signed a deal with Flanders to develop a digital interface. The digital interface will be designed to connect Flanders’ ARDVARC autonomous drill system and Sandvik’s iSeries rotary blasthole drills. The creation of a digital interface will allow Sandvik’s rotary drills to work with the ARDVARC system with little to no changes made to the drill rig. The companies are targeting a ‘plug and play’ approach which would allow the two systems to work together. Developing the interface would also mean that customers would have… Read More Here

Atlas Copco has acquired Oxymat A/S, a Danish supplier of on-site oxygen and nitrogen solutions. Oxymat is a privately owned company headquartered in Helsinge, Denmark, with production facilities in Denmark and Slovakia. The company has 146 employees, and in 2021, they had revenues of approximately MDKK 301 (MSEK 411*). Oxymat specializes in on-site gas generation solutions for a wide range of industries including aquaculture, water treatment, medical, marine and mining. By converting bulk or cylinder supply of gas to on-site generation, the need of frequent truck transport can be avoided,… Read More Here

Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions has introduced the AutoMine® Mapping Solution, an innovative new product designed to, it says, maximise productivity and improve safety of autonomous vehicle navigation in underground mining operations through the use of mapped data. The AutoMine Mapping Solution is Sandvik’s next generation product that enables a vehicle to safely record an underground 3D environment with a mine mapping tool, and convert 3D maps to 2D. Faster configuration, and the possibility to continue to operate other equipment within the area while it is being mapped, increases productivity… Read More Here