ABB Robots in Mining: Robot Blast-Hole Charging

Blast-hole charging was one of the last manual jobs underground. How the ABB Robot Charger, tested with Boliden and LKAB, keeps miners away from the rock face.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/22/20262 min read

Blasting rock underground has always started with someone standing at the rock face. Around 1900, miners in Butte, Montana, drilled holes by hand with steel and hammer, then packed them with explosives. The work was slow and loud, and it was among the most dangerous jobs in the mine, right under freshly broken rock.

Group of miners with hand drills and hammers in an underground tunnel around 1900
Group of miners with hand drills and hammers in an underground tunnel around 1900

Hand-drilling miners at the Parrot Mine in Butte, Montana, around 1900. Photo: Harry C. Freeman (public domain)

Pneumatic drills and later drill rigs took the hammering away. By the 1950s, crews at mines like Mount Isa in Australia drilled with compressed-air machines, and today drill jumbos do it from a cab. Charging each hole with explosives and detonators stayed a manual job, done close to unsupported rock.

Three miners operating a pneumatic rock drill underground at Mount Isa
Three miners operating a pneumatic rock drill underground at Mount Isa

Miners drilling underground at Mount Isa, Australia, around 1954. Photo: State Library of Queensland (no known restrictions)

ABB set out to automate that last step with Swedish miners Boliden and LKAB. The ABB Robot Charger mounts an industrial robot arm on a carrier vehicle. A vision system finds the drilled holes, and the arm fills them with explosive charges while operators stay back and control it remotely. Testing took place at Boliden's Garpenberg zinc mine.

ABB industrial robot arm on a mining carrier vehicle in an underground tunnel
ABB industrial robot arm on a mining carrier vehicle in an underground tunnel

The ABB Robot Charger on its carrier vehicle underground. Photo: ABB

The rest of the industry is moving the same way. At the end of August, Caterpillar, which has spent decades automating haul trucks, drills and underground loaders, said it will spend $100 million over five years training its 118,000 employees in AI, autonomy and robotics. Its CTO said the hard part is fitting autonomy into real jobsites.

Large yellow autonomous haul truck at an open-pit mine
Large yellow autonomous haul truck at an open-pit mine

An autonomous haul truck at Ferrexpo's iron ore mine. Photo: RobSimmons223311 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Charging is frequent work. In large underground mines, blasting can run up to 15 times a day, so every round a robot handles is one less round a person spends at the face. ABB's system also uses a second robot arm to assemble the primer and detonator before loading.

ABB robot arm reaching toward marked drill holes in a rock face
ABB robot arm reaching toward marked drill holes in a rock face

The ABB Robot Charger locating drilled holes in the rock face. Photo: ABB

The goal is mines where people plan and supervise from the surface. That matters beyond mining, because the zinc, copper and lithium in home batteries, wiring and electronics come from rock faces like these, and a safer, steadier supply helps keep them affordable.

Close-up of ABB robot arm with charging tool in front of a rock face
Close-up of ABB robot arm with charging tool in front of a rock face

The charging tool on the ABB robot arm, working at the rock face. Photo: ABB

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