Sandvik Mining is looking to shift the battery-electric dynamic in underground drilling from one focused on vehicle propulsion to one that also directly improves the drilling process itself, Johannes Välivaara, President, Underground Drilling, told IM this month.

The OEM has had at least one battery-electric development drill in its portfolio for a decade now, starting with the DD422iE launched in 2016. This electric development jumbo leveraged the diesel-backed advances Sandvik had made previously but added in a battery for ‘zero emission’ tramming between hole locations.

This certainly made for a cleaner and ‘greener’ underground drilling environment, but considering the drilling system of these rigs is almost identical to their diesel equivalents, they made little difference to the actual drilling process. Välivaara said as much to IM on the sidelines of the Future of Mining 2026 event in Finland: “We have been on that journey since 2016 when we released the first BEV drill, the DD422iE, which had a sodium-nickel battery. We’ve carried out a lot of improvements since then, but the challenge for the underground drilling sector is tramming on battery is considered a secondary function compared with the drilling operation itself.

“I mean customers are looking to get a certain amount of holes drilled with a certain accuracy, with a certain cost and within a certain time window. So, having a battery for tramming – even with the benefits of less noise, less heat and less emissions – didn’t meaningfully change those metrics as the drilling part was similar. It didn’t move the needle.”

The release of the DD423iE looks like changing that.

For starters, the battery on board this new machine is markedly different to the 100 kWh sodium-nickel variant that Sandvik used on the DD422iE.

The DD423iE comes with a 180 kWh lithium-iron-phosphate battery system that can carry out approximately 45 km of tramming on flat ground and up to 9 km of uphill tramming on a 1:7 incline. It also boasts an 80% improvement in battery drilling performance compared with the previous generation, while tramming speed has been enhanced by 30%, making it the fastest machine in Sandvik’s underground drilling portfolio.

The DD423iE can deliver more than triple the charging power while drilling, enabling a full 0-100% state of charge of the battery much faster than its predecessor, aligning well with time spent at the face itself.

These are all improvements to the battery drill status quo, meaning battery-based tramming between drill locations is a possibility at most mines, according to Välivaara.

“But we can now offer added productivity to the equation with battery-boosted drilling,” he said.

Maximising the productivity of BEV drilling

Battery-boosted drilling offers mining companies the ability to increase productivity in power-constrained underground operations without increasing the maximum grid power above the prescribed limits. Välivaara explained: “As mines go deeper over time, the harder it is to pull electric power through your infrastructure as the distance from the source increases. We are already in some cases having to adapt the drilling power at underground mines to the constraints coming from the mine grid itself.”

Now, battery-boosted drilling can change that, enabling mines to reach the best possible drilling outcomes regardless of the grid-based constraints. For example, if the grid capacity is reduced, reserve power can be drawn from the batteries to sufficiently keep up the drilling pace. On the other hand, should the grid power remain adequate, an extra power boost can be applied to ensure that added productivity. Battery charging happens during the normal drilling cycle to ensure enough capacity is available on board the rig after the round is completed.

“We’ve carried out tests of our own and what we can see is around an up to 8% reduction in face time alongside an 18% increase in drilling productivity,” Välivaara said of this functionality.

Such numbers could prove compelling for underground mine operators, offering them the business case needed to make investments in battery-electric vehicles (BEV) instead of the diesel-powered variant.

“There are no extra investments needed for the infrastructure itself – no charging stations or battery swap bays,” Välivaara said. “So, the transition from diesel to BEVs has been made, I would say, as easy as possible, and you also can run the BEV side by side with your diesel fleet.”

Coverage and crosscuts

In addition to these electrification advances, the Sandvik DD423iE retains the performance improvements of the DD423i. These include 35% greater drilling and 48% improved crosscut coverage, and the integration of new SB75i booms with double rollovers.

“We have around half a metre more extension with these new SB75i booms, compared with the SB60i booms,” Välivaara said. “We see this as significant, reducing the number of times operators need to relocate the rig to drill the entire face. That all adds up in terms of productivity.

“And those double rollovers ensure you can conduct crosscut drilling smoothly from the same location – drilling from either side – to further improve the drill’s coverage.”

Operator safety and productivity are further enhanced through increased visibility and reduced noise levels inside the cabin. New lightweight covers make serviceability easier with improved accessibility to the main components.

Field testing at Agnico Eagle Finland’s Kittilä mine validated these performance improvements in real mining conditions, according to Sandvik, with a representative from the mining company saying: “[The] Sandvik DD423iE’s performance and range were quite impressive, especially compared to previous models, and it can also compete with six-cylinder diesel engines.”

Zero Entry steps

When IM last met with Välivaara in late 2022, the reception to the showcase of the AutoMine® Concept Underground Drill, also known as ‘Amelia’, was still being felt by him and his colleagues.

The self-contained drill has no cable, being powered instead off an on-board battery. It uses and optimises power and electricity based on need, making that power supply last even longer. Automated tramming, mission management, drilling and bit changing are some of the elements Sandvik highlighted upon launch, with the automated lifter tube installer eliminating one manual task at the face in the preparation step between drilling and charging. The concept machine itself was not intended for commercialisation, but rather as a platform for testing technologies that could later be introduced on commercial equipment.

Having received feedback from customers on the value these solutions could provide on commercial rigs, Sandvik is continuing its plans to roll out some of these functionalities, Välivaara said.

“We have been working towards the final concepts for some of these in close partnership with our customers, and we are pretty much at the final steps to get them commercialised,” he said.

Pending some final site testing, Välivaara said, as an example, the market could soon see a functioning automated navigation module. He said: “You may remember, it is based on the on-board scanners that provide the exact location of the machine itself as well as some reference points on the sidewalls.

“For the operators, this will dramatically simplify the drilling process: they simply drive to the heading, set down the jacks, select the drill plan and start drilling. This is a big difference, meaning there is no need for a surveyor to provide that reference point for every new setup.”

This reduces the need for the operator to work at the front of the rig and supports Sandvik’s broader Zero Entry objective.

Further AutoMine developments are expected to enable operators to control the drill remotely, improving safety while potentially allowing drilling to continue through shift changes.

These developments are also likely to be accompanies by continued investment in machine learning. At Sandvik’s Tampere Test Mine this month, the company demonstrated an AI agent assisting an operator in selecting an optimal drilling process, including the use of battery-boosted drilling.

“I would say we are quite close to bringing something to market in that space as well,” Välivaara said of potential AI advances.

The pipeline of projects on for Välivaara and his underground drilling team looks vast, but he emphasised that the OEM was committed to going through the required change management processes with its customers to ensure any adaptations it proposes provide value to mining operations.

“We recognise the fact that every successful technology adoption requires buy in from all levels in the organisation with clear understanding on the reasons behind the change,” he said. “By focusing on the end goals – which are not about technology as such, but about people and real and tangible value we can bring to the operations – we believe this journey will become much easier for all involved.”