DRILL & BLAST
HISTORY
Nick Howlett operates the SmartROC D65 MKII Autonomous rig’s teleremote station inside Iron Bridge’s air-conditioned operations centre
We’ve spent a lot of
time perfecting how the rig drills autonomously
meaning the rig is drilling under various conditions. “We want that,” says Howlett, an Epiroc Automation Specialist. “It’s how we develop and make a good product.”
NATURAL SELECTION Fortescue has a reputation for being a forward-thinking mining house. It has been pursuing autonomous solutions for well over a decade, making it a natural partner in the SmartROC D65 Autonomous programme. Epiroc and Fortescue entered a
partnership in 2021 to trial this MKII version of Epiroc’s SmartROC D65 Autonomous. This project followed a 2018 SmartROC D65 Autonomous MKI pilot project in Canada. A successful test would provide Fortescue with an autonomous blast drill solution and Epiroc with vital test intel under realistic mining conditions. “There’s no doubt autonomous is
the way the industry’s going,” says Epiroc Australia General Manager and MD, Wayne Sterley. “And that
speaks to the inherent productivity, efficiency and safety gains of autonomous solutions.” An autonomous SmartROC D65 rig’s
advantages aren’t down to pure speed but tend to accumulate over time via a clever use of autonomous subsystems and the high quality and consistency of the holes it produces. “A manual operator could maybe
beat us over an hour or so, but that’s not what it’s about,” Howlett says. “It’s about consistency. When the operator goes for a break, we drill. If there’s blasting nearby, we drill. And our shift changes tend to be shorter. “We’ve spent a lot of time perfecting
how the rig drills autonomously, including water control, how it starts a hole, and the tricky aspects of collaring. We’ve also tuned it for different types of ground, with five different settings. You set these different parameters, the operator selects one and the drill gets to work.” The SmartROC D65 Autonomous has also had an edge in pre-split
drilling. At Iron Bridge, operators drill up to 30m at an angle, meaning it’s relatively easy for unintended deviations in holes. The autonomous rig has been more precise in these scenarios, making for better drilling predictions and, in turn, easier drill plan adjustments. Consistency also has positive
impacts on equipment life cycles, with the SmartROC D65 MKII Autonomous rig’s autonomous algorithms using components such as cylinders, feed chains, rotation heads, and rock drilling tools more optimally.
TESTING, TESTING… At its test site, the rig looks similar to a manually operated drill but features lidar and cameras on the machine’s front, back and top. There are also automation mode (“safe-to-board”) lights for transitioning from remote to local operations. Surrounding traffic cones mark out the SmartROC D65 MKII Autonomous rig’s “geofence,” or perimeter of autonomous operations.
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LESSON Established in 2003, the Western Australian-based Fortescue Ltd. now ships more than 190 million metric tons of iron ore annually. It is one of the most cost- effective iron ore producers in the world. Fortescue has been pursuing automation and autonomous solutions for well over a decade. In 2012, it introduced its first autonomous haulage truck and was the first company in the world to deploy an autonomous haulage system on a commercial scale.
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