PRESS RELEASE: The company stated that it has a long tradition of developing innovative technology to help its customers to improve productivity, reduce cost and enhance safety, and that its recent product development efforts translate this tradition into tangible results for its customers.

It has grown its i-Series line of intelligent drills, which are designed to offer users a broader range of hole diameters with single-pass, multi-pass, high and low pressure options. As Sandvik's platform of the future, the i-Series family comes with an array of advanced features and customer benefits.

All i-Series drills are built around an advanced CAN BUS design with enhanced control systems helping reduce troubleshooting time and increasing availability. The scalable (non-bundled) surface drill automation architecture allows for a customised path to the level of automation needed.

The OptiMine solution is an analytics and process optimisation suite that offers a collection of digital solutions targeted to improve efficiency of your mining operations and offers advanced analytics to help identify process improvements via predictive insights.

Drills equipped with Sandvik's Compressor Management System can save customers up to 30% on fuel with a proportional increase in engine and compressor life.

The Sandvik DR412i blasthole drill is designed to improve conservation and deliver dependable penetration in the world's harshest mining conditions. Constructed for rotary or down-the-hole (DTH) drilling, the DR412i is automation-ready and built to guarantee reliability while bringing a new level of safety and productivity to any operation. The DR412i is designed for rotary and down the hole drilling applications with a hole range of 216-311mm. High and low pressure versions are available with single-pass maximum hole depth of 31m and multi-pass maximum hole depth of 75m.

In addition, the Sandvik DR416i rotary blasthole drill is the largest surface drill in Sandvik's portfolio, capable of drilling up to 406mm holes while offering high rotational torques and pulldown forces at a low operating cost. It is scheduled to be released in the first half of 2018.

The DR410i, slated for release in 2019, is the next addition to the i-Series line of intelligent drill solutions from Sandvik. The DR410i is designed for rotary drilling applications with a hole range of 200-225mm (77/8-9") and down the hole applications with a hole range of 152-225mm (6"-9"). High and low pressure versions are available with single-pass maximum hole depth of 14m (46') and multi-pass maximum hole depth of 56m (185').

Sandvik's Leopard DI650i is scheduled to be released at Electra Mining Africa in September 2018, completing the company's surface DTH drill offering for the mining and construction markets. As with all of Sandvik's surface DTH drills, the DI650i offers excellent mobility, operator comfort and serviceability along with an intelligent DTH control system which can be scaled up in the future with more automated features.

Joanne Cooke, president, surface drilling & exploration at Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology, remarked: "We continue to evolve our product offering to meet the ever-changing technology landscape but more importantly to make sure we are delivering exceptional value to our customers. The products we have released to the market along with the soon to be released products reinforce our culture of aggressive innovation and our never-ending focus on our customers whose feedback we have used in the development of these new products."