Twenty-five years after the launch of the Pit Viper, Epiroc’s largest surface blasthole drill rig, it continues to outperform expectations. Over the past decade, this iconic drill rig model has operated autonomously, significantly boosting productivity and reducing emissions for mining customers worldwide.
Helena Hedblom, Epiroc’s President and CEO, stated: “The iconic Pit Viper rig has set the standard for a quarter of a century when it comes to powerful surface drilling, and for a decade when it comes to autonomous operations.”
She emphasized that customers trust the Pit Viper because it provides safety, productivity, and energy efficiency. Hedblom added that with continuous upgrades, the rigs keep improving regardless of their age.
A decade of autonomous operation has demonstrated several key benefits. The depth accuracy of drilled holes has increased by an average of 85%, which has helped avoid over 8 million wasted overdrill meters. The spatial accuracy of the drilled holes has also risen by an average of 60%. Autonomous Pit Viper rigs have drilled more than 90 million meters, and their utilization rate in autonomous mode is 17% higher than in manual operation.
The models have contributed to lower emissions, saving approximately 85 million litres of fuel and reducing CO2 emissions by around 225,000 tons. This reduction is equivalent to planting more than 10 million trees or removing almost 50,000 passenger vehicles from the road for a year. Additionally, autonomous Pit Viper rigs have improved safety by operating unmanned. The introduction of the Automatic Bit Changer (ABC) in 2022 further heightened safety, as it allows quick automatic bit changes with a single touch of a button, eliminating human exposure and maximizing uptime. Since its launch, more than 7,000 tricone bits have been replaced automatically using ABC.
From the outset, the Pit Viper rigs were designed to be powerful, flexible, and mobile. Equipped with onboard computers, these drill rigs transitioned from manual operation to automation and ultimately to full autonomy. The autonomous journey began a decade ago when a mining company successfully trialed Epiroc’s autonomous technology on two Pit Viper 271 rigs at an iron ore mine in the Pilbara region of Australia. Since then, autonomous use of the Pit Viper series has expanded rapidly at open-pit mines around the world, with applications spanning copper, gold, platinum, and phosphate mining.
These autonomous machines execute complex drilling plans consistently and safely, often operated from off-site control rooms located more than a thousand kilometers from the mining sites.
