IAMGOLD has agreed to purchase five autonomous Pit Viper drill rigs from Epiroc Canada to work at its Côté Gold project in the Sudbury District of Ontario. It marks the first fully autonomous fleet of Pit Viper rigs on Canadian soil.
“The autonomous Pit Viper fleet has a strong reputation for reliability and this recent agreement shows our shared commitment to operator safety on site,” said Chris Graves, business line manager, Surface Drilling, Epiroc Canada.
The powerful blasthole drill rigs are equipped with Mobius for Drills, a digitalization tool that imports drill plans and collects key data for mining personnel all while enabling multi-machine control. The solution also introduces 3D-P, engaging Epiroc’s wireless networking capabilities into the agreement which enables integration and connectivity with the mines existing networks.
“The Epiroc Pit Viper fleet is an integral step along the Côté Gold journey to be the first fully automated haulage and drilling mine in Canada,” said Francis Letarte-Lavoie, operations manager, Côté Gold.
“The existing four Pit Viper rigs are progressing towards full autonomous mode, and we anticipate the fifth drill set for delivery in April 2024 will complete the fleet successfully. We look forward to continuing to develop the partnership with Epiroc in order to meet our milestones during this critical time for Côté Gold and IAMGOLD in general.”
Côté Gold is targeting first gold in Q1 2024.
Source: Epiroc