Sandvik surface concept points to the future

Imagine, for a moment, what the surface mine of the future may look like. Equipment moves autonomously across the pit, coordinated through a shared, real-time data model that spans every machine, function and shift. Skilled personnel are no longer stationed inside or beside equipment. Instead, they oversee operations remotely, stepping in when human judgment is needed.

Every meter drilled and measured, vibration recorded and maintenance alert generated feeds back into the system, helping to make the next shift safer, more efficient and more productive than the last.

For Sandvik, this is the direction in which converging pressures - including the industry’s push toward zero-entry mining, the shortage of skilled operators and the accelerating case for electrification - are driving surface mining. The company’s new autonomous, battery-electric surface concept machine is its clearest demonstration yet of what that future could look like in practice.

Patrick Murphy, President Mining at Sandvik, said: “For years, Sandvik has helped define the future of underground mining through its AutoMine® automation platform, electrification and digital technologies that have fundamentally changed how mines operate. Our latest concept brings that same ambition to surface operations. By challenging conventional ways of working, we’re helping to create the next generation of safer, more productive, more reliable and increasingly autonomous mines.”

Co-designing the future of surface drilling

Unveiled at Sandvik’s Future of Mining event in Tampere, Finland, the surface concept machine shows how AI, enhanced robotics, electrification and digital connectivity can work together within an intelligent, mine-wide operating system.

Built on a boom-drill platform, the fully autonomous concept machine is battery electric and has no operator cabin. It carries its own drill bits, collar pipes and down-the-hole hammers onboard, while an integrated industrial robot autonomously changes bits, installs collar pipes and replaces hammers. It can also measure hole depth and deviation after drilling. The machine navigates autonomously and continuously adapts its behavior by identifying, tracking and classifying people, equipment and other objects around it. LED matrix displays communicate its operational status to personnel working nearby.

Developing the concept created an opportunity for Sandvik to rethink how a fleet of drills is managed and optimized. Instead of concentrating on individual features, a cross-functional team explored how electrification, autonomous operation, robotic tool handling and digital integration could be combined into a single system.

By bringing together expertise from across Sandvik to co-design and test new ideas, the project demonstrates what is possible when technologies and people unite around a shared vision, while providing valuable insight into how future surface drilling solutions may evolve.

Inside next-generation automation

What distinguishes the surface concept machine from earlier autonomous drilling concepts is the intelligence layer above the equipment. While many open-pit mines have already adopted automation in processes such as drilling and hauling, this concept combines AI, robotics, seamless data flow and optimization as part of a broader operating system.

Connected to a continuously updated, mine-wide digital twin, the concept machine becomes an active part of the mine’s operating system. Sandvik’s AI agent assigns drilling tasks, coordinates activities across the broader mining fleet and provides a single point of contact for the operation.

Operators interact with the AI agent using natural language to ask questions, assign tasks and check status. They are alerted when human judgment is required. The machine can then start itself, plan its route and drilling work, execute the full work cycle without intervention and update the digital twin in real time.

Riku Pulli, President of Digital Mining Technologies at Sandvik, said the real breakthrough lies not in the machine itself, but in its integration into an intelligent mining ecosystem. “By combining AI, autonomy and a continuously updated digital twin, we move from optimizing individual assets to optimizing the entire mining operation,” Pulli said. “That’s where the next step change in productivity and decision-making will come from.”

“The machine is a concept rather than a product, but the technologies behind it are very real,” Pulli added. “Many of the capabilities being demonstrated today will help shape the evolution of our offering and find their way into future solutions for surface mining customers.”

A platform for the future of surface mining

Although demonstrated on a boom-drill platform, the technologies embodied in Sandvik’s surface concept machine are intended to be scalable across the wider Sandvik surface drilling portfolio, including rotary blasthole drills. The concept is designed to stimulate conversation and collaboration with customers and industry stakeholders while accelerating the development of future commercial solutions.

For the wider surface mining ecosystem, the concept reframes digitalization as more than automation of an individual machine. It demonstrates how drilling can operate as part of a connected, intelligent, mine-wide system - and that the technologies required to enable this future are already being tested at the Sandvik Test Pit in Finland.