New Surface Rigs Offer Range of Automated Drilling Capabilities

Sandvik Mining has announced a new Pantera percussive drill platform, designed specifically for mining and available for both DTH (down-the-hole) and TH (top hammer) applications, that is claimed to deliver increased drilling capacity, lower fuel consumption and improved safety. The new range has been developed to take advantage of mining industry trends toward fully autonomous operation, with options allowing owners to take advantage of automation technology as their needs and mining operations change. The two new models are the Pantera DI6400 (DTH) and Pantera DP2000 (TH). The Pantera DI6400 will be available in late 2013, and the DP2000 will be released in 2014.

Designed for wall control, pit development and production drilling, all Pantera variants share the same platform, control system and automation infrastructure, further reducing the cost of training, maintenance and ownership in surface drilling applications. The new Pantera platform combines an innovative approach to surface drilling through Sandvik’s SICA (Sandvik Integrated Control Architecture) control system technology.

The Pantera DI6400 is designed for 115- to 203-mm-diameter blastholes up to 45-m deep, while the Pantera DP2000 can drill 152- to 178-mm diameter holes 36-m deep.

Sandvik said the Pantera top hammer configuration, featuring its new RD2045C 45 kW hydraulic rock drill, will offer superior drilling capacity in the 152- to 178-mm range for the first time in the market. The Pantera DTH configuration is claimed to offer the industry’s highest operating pressures for faster, more efficient drilling.

The new Pantera range also offers increased service life and lower maintenance costs through such features as an optimized powerpack offering on the TH drill, heavy-duty main frame and boom/feed modules and modular layout and improved access to all components.

Each option is available in three configurations—Silver, Gold and Platinum—allowing them to be readily adapted to the needs of customers in different mining markets around the world. The Silver configuration meets the highest global safety and productivity requirements, according to Sandvik, and is designed to deliver outstanding drilling performance, hole precision and quality. Gold models are designed for applications requiring Sandvik precision TIM3D navigation via GPS and data transfer; they also incorporate automated drilling functions and a machine health monitoring system. Platinum, said Sandvik, is for mines looking to take advantage of Sandvik AutoMine Surface Drilling’s automated mining system. This configuration incorporates all Silver and Gold features, as well as allowing autonomous and tele-remote operations.

www.mining.sandvik.com

As featured in Womp 2013 Vol 11 - www.womp-int.com