20 / 64
COVER STORY
18
MODERN MINING
July 2015
T
he Sandvik DD210L is designed
to work in excavations with head-
room as low as 1,7 m. The robust
universal boom has a large opti-
mum shaped coverage, 360-degree
rotation and full automatic parallelism for fast
and easy face drilling. The boom can also be
used for cross-cutting, with a hose layout spe-
cifically designed to maximise protection in
low headings. The exceptional ‘V‘-shape lay-
out is designed for good visibility and balance,
while a powerful four-wheel-drive articulated
carrier ensures fast and safe manoeuvring,
even in low headroom conditions.
The high performance drilling system allows
high drilling performance with good drill steel
economy and high machine reliability. The
operator environment and added automatic
functions allow the operator to concentrate
on safe, fast and accurate drilling. All the ser-
vice points are well protected, but within easy
access.
Dry drilling is the method of choice in many
local underground rock drilling applications in
kimberlitic ground, compared to the use of water
in the drilling process. This is because water
degrades the composition of kimberlite ore,
causing it to swell and potentially destabilising
working conditions. However, stringent health
and safety legislation demands the proper con-
trol of the dust generated during dry drilling,
creating an increasing demand for efficient dust
collector systems for underground use.
“We originally introduced ILMEG dust sup-
pression technology mounted on our DD210L
mobile drill rigs as a trial at just one of Petra
Diamond Group’s mines and, based on its suc-
cess, we later introduced more units,” says
Saltiel Pule, Sandvik Mining Business Line
Manager for Underground Drills. “Our partner-
ship with ILMEG has led to a complete solution
for customers drilling kimberlite rock and
positioned us as a market leader in terms of com-
mercialising this combination of technologies.
“Petra Diamonds has been very supportive
Sandvik forges ahead with dry
“Petra Diamonds
has been very
supportive in
trialling and
implementing
this technology
and we made
sure that we
had a deep
understanding
of the customer’s
challenges.”
Saltiel Pule,
Sandvik Mining
The Sandvik DD210L is designed to work in
excavations with headroom as low as 1,7 m.
Sandvik Mining has successfully partnered with the
Petra Diamonds Group to introduce state-of-the-art
dust suppression technology on the Sandvik DD210L
low-profile single-boom electro-hydraulic drill rigs it has
supplied for dry drilling operations. Petra’s Cullinan mine
in Gauteng has five of the units operating.
in trialling and implementing this technology
and we made sure that we had a deep under-
standing of the customer’s challenges. As a
result, we’ve been able to meet their needs
very well and have recorded excellent results,
notably advancing between 80 m and 100 m
in the first month of operation. This has led to
repeat orders and, having proved the combined
technology at these mines, we expect a knock-
on effect from the rest of the diamond mining
industry.”
The ILMEG dust control system is based
on the company’s well known X-series dust
collectors and features a newly developed cut-
tings collector which is mounted in front of the
drill feed. This system was specifically devel-
oped for the rock drilling industry and can be
mounted on any rock drilling rig being used for
dry drilling.
Prior to the introduction of the Sandvik/