Based on its recent analysis of the global mining automation market, Frost & Sullivan has recognized Sandvik with the 2020 Global Product Leadership Award for its advanced mining automation, teleoperation and digitalization solutions portfolio, AutoMine® and OptiMine®.

”Sandvik is the only mining equipment and solutions company that was awarded in our 2020 Class of Top 50 Digital Best-practitioners across the Industrial and Energy Space,” says Rohit Karthikeyan, Industry Analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

The AutoMine® system is an innovative automation solution that comprises AutoMine® Underground and AutoMine® Surface Drilling, enabling customers to scale up the mining automation at their own pace.

The AutoMine® Underground product family includes the sub-products AutoMine® Tele-Remote, AutoMine® Lite, AutoMine® Multi-Lite, and AutoMine® Fleet.

“AutoMine® Tele-Remote offers a significant advantage over peer solutions in being easy to install, operate, and manage,” says Rohit Karthikeyan, Industry Analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

“Similarly, AutoMine® Lite and AutoMine® Multi-Lite offer added advantages by handling repeated tasks autonomously. The system is suitable and easy to use in any mining application. AutoMine® Fleet is an advanced high-end solution for mass-mining and truck haulage applications, with automated missions and fleet traffic control. Overall, the solution improves fleet utilization, ensuring constant performance improvements and optimum workforce usage.”

Sandvik’s loaders and trucks autonomously travel between the load and dump points under the control of a supervisory system that manages equipment traffic and monitoring.

“Its smart functionalities and intelligent capabilities reduce the potential for damage and save significant costs,” says Karthikeyan.

AutoMine® Surface Drilling is an automation solution available for a wide range of Sandvik’s iSeries top hammer, down-the-hole and rotary drills. AutoMine® Surface Drilling allows an operator to be located on-site or in a control room miles away and still manage multiple drill rigs with the same efficiency. This helps the operator avoid exposure to noise, dust and vibration caused by hazardous drilling environments.

“One of the biggest competitive differentiating factors is that Sandvik is a mining equipment/mining process and digital solutions provider”, says Karthikeyan.

“This expertise in technical, industrial and digital domains enables it to deliver compelling offerings that outperform peers’ products to the market.”

OptiMine® is the most comprehensive suite of digital tools for analyzing and optimizing underground hard rock mining production and processes. It integrates all assets and people, including non-Sandvik equipment, and provides tools for operations management as well as descriptive and predictive insights to enhance mining operations. OptiMine® is interoperable and able to connect to any system and technology, including Newtrax IoT devices, providing a real-time view of mining operations. It is an open, scalable and modular suite that gives mines the flexibility to expand and work with a full range of equipment, systems and networks.

“We are honored to be acknowledged with the 2020 Global Autonomous Mining Solutions Product Leadership Award by Frost & Sullivan expert industry analysts,” says Riku Pulli, President, Rock Drills and Technologies Division, Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions.

“We are continuously developing innovative technologies that benefit our customers’ operations and this award indicates the success that Sandvik has achieved with our automation offering over the years.”

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has developed a product with innovative features and functionality that is gaining rapid market acceptance. The award recognizes the quality of the solution and the customer value enhancements it enables.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.