Epiroc’s Pit Viper blasthole drill rig has become something of a household product in the global resources industry, underlined by a recent order from CITIC Pacific Mining in Australia.
Since the first Pit Viper was deployed to a Chilean mine in 2002, Epiroc has developed eight iterations of the popular blasthole drill rig.
The Pit Viper range now includes the PV-231, 235, 271, 275, 291, 311, 316 and 351 drill rigs.
While the original Pit Viper 351 is still in operation in Chile – highlighting the machine’s durability – other models have shined in their own way.
The PV-271 can operate in almost any surface mining application, whether it is gold, copper, coal, iron ore or silver, and is regarded as the drill that put the Pit Viper on the map. The drill is available in diesel and electric and is automation-ready, which means automated system upgrades and add-ons can be done without major machine rebuilds.
The PV-271 can be configured with the XC (extra capacity) package, boosting its bit load capacity from 34 to 42.5 tonnes.
In October, Epiroc announced it had won a large equipment order from CITIC Pacific Mining, with a fleet of automated PV-271XC rigs to be used at the Sino Iron open-pit mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
“Epiroc delivered Pit Viper rigs to the Sino Iron site in 2019, and we are proud to continue this productive partnership as CITIC Pacific Mining is expanding the mine while optimising productivity and safety,” Epiroc president and chief executive officer Helena Hedblom said.
CITIC Pacific Mining general manager Xianglin Cheng said Epiroc had become a reliable partner in recent years.
“In the last three years, Epiroc has provided satisfactory after-sale services to help the three Pit Viper 351 drill rigs perform to expectation and has also successfully established mutual trust with CITIC Pacific Mining,” he said.
“The confidence and trust are the major reasons for us to choose Epiroc.”
The drills bound for CITIC Pacific Mining will feature Epiroc’s exclusive autonomous drill plan execution (ADPE) technology, a unique feature in that it enables the rigs to complete full drill patterns rather than single rows.
“What ADPE means is that we upload the pattern of the drill, and the drill goes off and executes the whole pattern,” Epiroc business line manager (ADS) Alex Grant told Australian Resources & Investment.
“And then if the drill has a problem, it effectively puts its hand up and says it has a problem. But unless there’s a challenge along the way, it will go and drill the whole pattern without any human intervention.”
This system, according to Grant, is something others in the field are “still trying to master”.
“Others have the auto-drill already, they just don’t necessarily have the same intelligent system to predict ground challenges, while our system adjusts automatically without human interaction to enable the most efficient drilling, since that’s most important autonomous feature for a drill rig,” he said.
“The OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) are still battling through the journey that we had to do over several years to make it work.
“We’re still the market leader in automation from an OEM standpoint.”
The PV-271XC drills will also be installed with AutoDrill, a feature which allows for up to 100 per cent of the hole drilling cycle to be in automatic mode.
This is alongside AutoLevel, a feature which minimises the time it takes to level and de-level, enabling more drilling time in the process.
Now in its fifth generation, Epiroc’s Rig Control System (RCS) platform is the foundation of Pit Viper automation, making full automation easier, safer and more productive.
RCS 5 has an enhanced control hub with improved usability, allowing operators to switch seamlessly between screens in a well-organised and dynamic manner. RCS 5’s new drilling data screen features real-time depth monitoring, while operators can now create and edit drill plans on-board or from a remote location quickly with the drilling plan manager.
Epiroc’s PV-270 series of drill rigs also include the 275 model, which has become a staple for its capability in coal overburden drilling and hard rock applications such as copper and iron ore mining.
The PV-291 single-pass rotary drill was introduced at MINExpo 2021 and has been designed to tackle larger diameter drilling in soft and medium ground conditions.
The PV-311, 316 and 351 offer the highest bit load in the Pit Viper range, delivering more than 50 tonnes of capacity per drill rig.
The original Pit Viper – the PV-351 – offers 56.7 tonnes of bit load capacity, making it the most powerful drill rig in the Pit Viper range. While Epiroc can offer diesel and electric options for the Pit Viper, more and more customers are opting for the zero-emission route.
There are now 116 electric PVs globally, split between Latin America, Africa, Europe and North America.
Recent orders by Tier 1 mining companies highlight the global reputation of the PV range, and the increased electric push of the drill rigs reflect Epiroc’s broader decarbonisation strategy.
Epiroc has become a market leader in automation, digitalisation and electrification solutions.
“Epiroc has been running electric drills with automation since 2019 – we’ve developed automation with electrification at the same time, so we have a level of the drill being able to run itself with the cable hanging off the back of the drill,” Grant said.
“Most of our competitors are still trying to embark on putting electrification on the drills themselves, but we’ve gone a step further, which does put us quite a number of years ahead.”
And the OEM is always finding new ways to enhance its capability, whether through research and development or acquisitions. Record revenue and profits in the third quarter of 2022 quantify Epiroc’s success, and it will be fascinating to see where the company takes its ingenuity next.
This feature appeared in the December issue of Australian Resources & Investment.