Enter the Ardvarc, or to be more precise, the Ardvarc 4.0, which manufacturer Flanders claims to be the “world’s first fully automated multi-pass drill rig that also incorporates the world’s first autonomous drill angle implementation”

Companies such as Sandvik, Atlas Copco and even Caterpillar – thanks to its takeover of Bucyrus, which brought it the Reedrill blast hole drills – may disagree. All have varying degrees of automation.

Even Rio Tinto has set about creating its own robot drilling program.

It makes a lot of sense to automate the blast hole drilling function. It is a dirty, dusty job that would have to be one of the most boring jobs on the mine site.

It also is one of the most vital to get right.

Get it right and, if the blast plan is up to speed, the material fragments properly and overburden can be cast to where it is wanted.

Get it wrong and the results can be costly. Ore can be diluted. The material may not be optimally fragmented which can mean more work for the crushers and mills. Overburden can be thrown too far or not far enough.

Another benefit of automation is that, when matched with GPS it makes for perfect hole placement. That makes sense for all the reasons above but also means that night operations will be just as accurate as day operations. The operator does not have to try and find the paint marking up the drill pattern, which can be hard enough to do in daylight.

Flanders Ardvarc 4.0 builds on its original Ardvarc systems of Ardvarc Intelli-Rig Complete Data System, Ardvarc One-Tourch Drill System and Ardvarc Auto Propel Complete Autonomous Operation.

It features:

• multi-pass and semi-pass automation
• unprecedented drill hole and hole angle accuracy of 0.5 metres on the x and y axes and a plus or minus one degree on hole angle
• automatic drill string adding and racking
• a new human-machine interfaces
• more modular hardware.

Flanders director of product support Curtis Stacy said Ardvarc was a state-of-the-art technology that “no-one else, including the OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] have been able to deliver”

“We have removed operators from harm’s way, have improved fragmentation consistency and increased drilling efficiency because that’s what matters to our customers,” he said.

The Ardvarc 4.0 is deployed in Queensland. Flanders says the system will improve the coal operation’s ability to cast blast overburden shots without interrupting the integrity of the coal seams.

That will reduce the need for production dozing and improve dragline and shovel productivity.

The system allows the rig to handle its own drill string, taking only 2.1 minutes to add a rod and 3.3 minutes to rack.

The machine also can align itself to within one degree of the design heading of the hole and automatically set the proper mast angle, thereby reducing operator error and improving accuracy.

This sounds quite similar to what Atlas Copco’s D65 Smart Rig does.

That machine is capable of positioning itself according to the drill plan and automatically going through a drill sequence.

It even can do this while the operator is taking a coffee break or preparing the site for a shift change.

In Australia this feature is moot because regulations require the operator to be in the cab when the drill is operating.

It is a bit like the old Maurie Fields gag.

Maurie is driving home from the pub one night when he gets pulled over by a policeman.

“Are you the driver of this car?” the officer asks.

“Well it’s an automatic, but I still have to be here,” comes the terse reply.