Drilling and Blasting
Innovation focused on efficiency
In the drilling industry, the current focus is on safety and optimization, all while sustainably producing more at a lower cost. Drilling companies and their providers are making internal efforts to contribute to these aims. "Mining is rooted in a physical medium. You can build software and automatize, but the final objective is to obtain a mineral from a rock as efficiently as possible with the least environmental impact," emphasized Trinidad Carmona, sales and marketing director at DrillCo.
Javier Varela, CEO of Drillco, explained that pressure on the drilling sector comes from multiple directions. "On the one hand, service providers are experiencing pressure in terms of inflation and higher costs for raw materials; on the other hand, there are more intense demands from mining companies for us to lower our costs to reduce their operational expenses," Varela said. "Finding that balance is a challenge that requires the industry to emphasize collaboration and innovation, increasing the value proposition at all levels."
Ignacio Bello, general manager of Diamanatia Christensen, is also aware that the primary concern in the industry is productivity. In response to this priority, the manufacturing company offers high-performance drilling products such as diamond core bits with higher penetration rates and longer life spans. Bello emphasized the specificity of requirements for the segment: "Bit selection depends on the drill operators' requirements and the drill rig's capacity. Underground mining also demands different types of products; for example, the length of the rods is different."
Automation is one of the most critical trends in the mining industry to address safety and efficiency challenges. Contractors and service providers across the value chain are moving in this direction. Automated drilling has near-limitless potential to optimize mining operations. Daniel Misiano, CEO of MBI Global, highlighted three main advantages of automation: "The priority is safety, a critical topic in South America. Second, automated drilling allows us to attract women to work in mining. Third, automated drilling provides excellent cost savings."
As a result, many companies are beginning to move strongly into automation. However, Misiano recognizes that the industry can be conservative when it comes to the adoption of technology. It is not just a cultural resistance to automation adoption but also a practical one. Daslav Curkovic, vice president of business development at Pro Drilling, explained: “Some drilling is carried out in extremely harsh environments and requires manual operation and handling, so that in some cases, particularly in exploration drilling, automation is not feasible."
“Increasingly, we observe certifications gain importance. If a car company wants to certify their car is green. In that case, they must demonstrate that the copper in the battery or wires is also certified as environmentally friendly.”
Javier Valera, CEO, Drillco
Automation has been slow to make its way in the exploration drilling segment, but some companies are starting to implement it in large mining operations. Gregory Duncan, general manager of Major Drilling Chile, pointed out: "Some major mining companies, such as BHP and Codelco, require very specialized drilling equipment for their sites, including 100% hands-free rod handlers on their drills."
Major Drilling is, therefore, actively working on integrating automated drills into its operations. "We have a 100% hands-free drill being tested in Suriname right now. Once that testing period concludes, we will send three or four to Chile, so we will soon have eight to ten drills operating in Chile," Duncan stated.
Automation has even more potential safety improvements for blasting operations, which are among the most dangerous and complex activities in mining, with numerous fatalities due to flying rock, dust, and lack of blast area security. ENAEX has recently taken a decisive step to reverse this trend, carrying out the world's first wholly robotic and teleoperated blast. "This year, we are starting an operational trial at the largest underground mine in the world, El Teniente. In March 2023, we began to implement this project to demonstrate our solution's capabilities and features in a challenging environment," mentioned Marco Ruiz, ENAEX robotic manager.
Increasing the efficiency of the drilling process requires more than technical improvements. It is not enough to attach more bells and whistles to a gadget. Drilling companies' executives also emphasize the need to go back to the drawing board, to the very identity of the material itself, to determine the optimal way to advance. In a period when minerals are more often behind harder rock or in more challenging areas, this building block approach to drilling provides a necessary foundation.
Trinidad Carmona described the material science focus of DrillCo's international research partnerships: "Our investigative approach focuses not just on improving the mechanics of our machines, but on improving our understanding of rock behavior and the fundamental nature of rocks. Studying a rock means knowing how it breaks and what happens during that process – developing a deep knowledge of the behavior of the rocks."
“Moving to green ammonia is key to continued carbon footprint reductions. That being said, locally producing green ammonia from renewable resources is a significant challenge at high cost in the short term.”
Pablo Wallach, Vice President Innovation and Marketing, Enaex
In this line, real-time data collection and analysis are some of the tools geologists use to understand rock conditions better and optimize the drilling process. Orica, for example, recently acquired Axis to move forward in this regard. "This acquisition allowed us to improve guidance in the drilling process, as well as to capture information on rock conditions that can support a better characterization of the deposits," Oscar Castañeda, Senior Manager Technology Projects LATAM / Innovation & Technology, Orica, stated.
Sustainability is another growing concern in drilling and blasting operations. Companies are turning to green energy sources in the quest for safe and sustainable blasting. By building an ammonia plant, ENAEX is trying to minimize the footprint of its blasting operations. As vice president of innovation and marketing, Pablo Wallach said: "We have dramatically reduced our footprint, and producing green ammonia is the key to continued reductions."
Héctor Palma, general general manager for Chile of Famesa Explosivos, agrees that, in addition to productivity, stricter environmental standards represent another major challenge for the mining sector. The introduction of the ecological line SAN-G APU is a clear example of the company's efforts to support sustainability and efficiency. "SAN-G APU is a gasified emulsion alternative that not only has a positive impact on the environment but also has a higher effective energy level than similar products on the market, improving fragmentation and maximizing productivity," Palma said.
“The most important factors to avoid deviations or problems during drilling are the experience and the skill of the operators to implement the appropriate speed and orientation adjustments. Therefore, it is difficult to think of replacing operators with automatic machines in drilling.”
Ignacio Bello Marambio, General Manager, Diamantina Christensen
Laboratories and chemicals tackle water
In a country where water is increasingly costly, mining companies demand effective water treatment products at all stages of the extraction process. Jorge Marchant, vice-president of mining Latin America at Mathiesen, explained: "There are two areas where water usage can be influenced – continued improvement of the metals recovery with our flotation reagents products, and through our rheology flocculants and standard flocculants to recover water at the thickener stage and put it back into the process."
Ricardo Capanema, global business development director, a specialty chemicals company, highlighted areas of innovation for water waste reduction in lithium processing. "The typical method for lithium extraction is evaporation. However, since this involves excessive water consumption, we have developed a solvent extraction technology that does not require evaporation and can extract lithium from brine in real time," Capanema said.
“The industry is going through unprecedented challenges, so the industry, universities, and companies in Chile are increasingly aware of the need to adopt new technologies.”
Oscar Castañeda, Senior Manager Technology Projects LATAM / Innovation & Technology, Orica
In a country where water is increasingly costly, mining companies demand effective water treatment products at all stages of the extraction process. Jorge Marchant, vice-president of mining Latin America at Mathiesen, explained: "There are two areas where water usage can be influenced – continued improvement of the metals recovery with our flotation reagents products, and through our rheology flocculants and standard flocculants to recover water at the thickener stage and put it back into the process."
Ricardo Capanema, global marketing and business development director of mining solutions at Solvay, a specialty chemicals company, highlighted areas of innovation for water waste reduction in lithium processing. "The typical method for lithium extraction is evaporation. However, since this involves excessive water consumption, we have developed a solvent extraction technology that does not require evaporation and can extract lithium from brine in real time," Capanema said.
Article header image courtesy of Hexagon