Sandvik Mining threw open the doors to its customers at its Perth facility last month as the company celebrated the sale of its 100th DR500 series drill rig to Macmahon.
The DR500 series consists of the Sandvik DR540, DR560, and DR580 drill rigs, and with thirty two units sold in the Asia Pacific region and one hundred around the world, Sandvik said the success of the product shows how well it works in the field.
“They work in all kinds of conditions; at altitude, in heat, cold, for different metals and in different applications,” said Mark Clifford, vice president of APC sales for underground hard rock and surface mining.
Sandvik said the DR500 series offers surface mining customers the only boom-mounted, high pressure down-the-hole drills that are designed and manufactured for mining operations.
The series also features many specialised additives which Sandvik said make the rigs superior in manoeuvrability and fault finding, making them highly productive and reliable.
An external auxiliary maintenance station is located on the carrier behind the cabin, allowing for tramming, and feed operation of the boom for positioning and drilling functions. It also means the rig can be controlled from the cab in emergency cases or for special applications.
While the series offers operating pressures of up to 500 psi, turbo charged after cooled diesel engines and fully independent track oscillation for high mobility.
“The success shows our customers see the machine as a mining dedicated drill,” said Michael Forrest, product line support manager, surface drilling.
“The drills perform to expectations,” he said.
Sandvik Mining bought the rights to the DR500 series surface drills from Cubex in 2010.
Since the company began manufacturing the drills, they have produced them at a record rate of around one machine a week, closing the gap in their product offerings by providing the first HP DTH product family.
“Adding the DR500 series to our offering was key to meetings our customers needs,” said Ken Stapylton, vice president of rotary and DTH drilling.
“Having a drill designed specifically for these tough mining environments means we can provide the level of safety, durability, and productivity that surface mining customers need.
“At the end of the day, that means a better peace of mind.”
The 100th rig was purchased by Macmahon and is set to go to work at the Tropicana Gold mine near Kalgoorlie.
Macmahon’s general plant manager, Peter Truscott, said the drill was chosen after thorough technical reviews.
“The purchase of the DR500 series drill represents a change in procurement strategy for small track drills within Macmahon,” he said.
“The selection was completed after extensive technical and peer reviews with the rig satisfying the demand for pre-split drilling and backup to the large rotary drills.”
“Macmahon looks forward to a continued strong working relationship with Sandvik to ensure the drills perform to optimal levels in terms of life cycle costs, durability and operation performance.”
Mark Clifford, vice president of APC sales for underground hard rock and surface mining said Sandvik invested heavily in R&D to better support its customers needs and supply equipment that does the job better.
“Our engineers continually improve and look at ways to enhance the reliability of the machines,” he said.
“What we rely on is fact-bases performance information from the end-users so that our engineering group can continually improve ways to enhance the reliability of the machine.”