Global climate goals have increased the need to reduce CO2 emissions and material waste in the mining industry. Rock drilling, being the first phase of the mining process, affects the whole chain from bedrock to crushed stone. Modern sensor technology provides a new level of visibility to the drilling process, enabling a reduction of CO2 emissions and material waste. Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions is pioneering in this field of technology with the RockPulse® product. The product provides direct online stress wave measurement enabling fact-based adaptation to varying rock conditions and optimization of drilling parameters. RockPulse enables finding the optimal percussion power and the reduction of harmful stress waves, which increases the penetration rate and the effectiveness of rock drilling while reducing tool consumption. The RockPulse system has been verified to enable annual reductions of several tons of CO2 emissions per equipment.
RockPulse®, a product of Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions, represents modern sensor technology which can be of great use in optimizing drilling. Sensitive sensors produce millions of data points from each hole drilled, which enables optimization of drilling settings on a completely new level. The system has proven to be able to significantly improve hole quality, while reducing tool consumption and improving efficiency. Efficient rock drilling is the first step in reducing CO2 emissions in the rock excavation process.
The global climate goals aim to reduce CO2 emissions drastically in the coming few years. The goal is to limit the global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius or to at least well below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels (United Nations 2015). Finland, the homeland of Sandvik top hammer drilling equipment, aims to be carbon neutral by 2035 (State treasury, Republic of Finland, 2022).
Mining presently accounts for 4 % - 7 % of global greenhouse gas emissions of which 1 % is from scope 1 and 2 (McKinsey 2020). The Scope 3 emissions are also greatly contributing factor for the mining sector. McKinsey estimates that most of the emissions from mining sector comes from coal mining (at 3 to 6 percent of global emissions). It is inevitable that the mining industry will need to use all tools available for reaching the climate goals. Therefore, all innovations enabling the reduction of CO2 emissions should be considered.
