ABSTRACT

The article presents the analysis of the world experience of longhole drilling automation during underground mining. The results of the Russian pilot project of tele-remote drilling with the use of electronic passports at one of the Kola Peninsula mines are presented. The article describes technology implementation stages, its features, and changes in the mine infrastructure, labor organization and main technical characteristics of the system. A technical and economic comparison of the cost of stope excavation was made as a result of tele-remote drilling pilot tests during a sublevel caving mining. It is shown that tele-remote drilling with the use of electronic passports allows reducing the deviation of the borehole trajectory by 60÷80%; decreasing the boulder output by more than 2 times and the explosive consumption by more than 9.5%; and increasing the equipment utilization factor and drilling performance by 15÷31%. In total, this allowed reducing the stope excavation costs by 7.9%.