Sandvik Wants Battery Power to Drill, Not Just to Drive

Sandvik Mining is working to extend battery-electric technology in underground development drilling beyond vehicle propulsion so that stored electrical power directly improves the drilling process itself, Johannes Välivaara, President, Underground Drilling, told International Mining in September 2026.

For most of the past decade, the argument for battery-electric machines underground has been an argument about air. Diesel engines burn fuel, fuel makes heat and exhaust, and exhaust has to be diluted by ventilation fans that can account for a large share of a mine's electricity bill. Take the diesel out of the tramming cycle and the ventilation load falls with it. That has been the pitch, and it has been a good one.

Sandvik Mining now wants to move the conversation somewhere else. Johannes Väliväara, the company's President, Underground Drilling, told International Mining this month that the original equipment manufacturer is looking to shift the battery-electric dynamic in underground drilling from one focused on vehicle propulsion to one that also directly improves the drilling process itself. Sandvik has had at least one battery-electric development drill in its portfolio for a decade.

Why the propulsion story was only half the machine

A development drill — the rig that bores the blast holes advancing a tunnel or decline toward the orebody — spends its life in two distinct modes. It tram, meaning it drives itself from one heading to the next. Then it sets up, plugs into the mine's electrical reticulation, and drills. Historically the battery has only ever mattered in the first mode. Once the rig is cabled in at the face, the energy comes off the grid and the battery sits idle.

That split explains why battery development drills have been an easier commercial sell than battery loaders or trucks. The duty cycle is undemanding: short tramming distances, long stationary periods with a power connection available for charging. It also explains why the technology, a decade in, has not transformed the economics of the drilling operation as dramatically as headline claims about electrification might suggest. Removing the diesel engine cleans up the drive between headings. It does not, by itself, make a hole get drilled faster, straighter or with less consumable wear.

Directing stored electrical energy at the drilling process is a different proposition. It implies the battery is doing work at the face — buffering peak loads, supporting onboard hydraulics or electric rock drills, smoothing the draw on mine infrastructure, or powering automation and positioning systems that keep running when the cable is not connected. Each of those touches the metric that mine managers actually budget against: metres advanced per shift, and the cost of each one.

What a drilling-side battery changes underground

Mine electrical infrastructure is a constraint that rarely makes press releases. Every heading needs cabling, transformers and switchgear brought forward as development advances, and the peak demand of a rock drill is not a gentle load. A machine that can shave its own peaks using onboard storage is a machine that may be able to work off a lighter connection — or reach a heading where the permanent supply has not yet arrived.

There is a second, less obvious consequence. Electrified, sensor-rich drilling produces data on every hole: penetration rate, feed pressure, deviation. Rigs that already carry high-voltage systems and control electronics are the natural platform for the automation layer mines are buying into, where a drill can execute a pre-planned face pattern with an operator supervising from surface. Accuracy at the face compounds downstream — straighter holes mean better blasts, less overbreak, less mucking of waste, and fewer shotcrete cubic metres sprayed on an irregular profile.

A competitive field where claims are easy and proof is slow

Sandvik is not alone in this space. The underground equipment market is effectively a duopoly at the top end, and every major supplier has spent the last several years announcing battery-electric variants of loaders, trucks, bolters and drills. The marketing has largely converged. What has not converged is fleet-level evidence: mines run these machines in small numbers, in specific ground conditions, and the payback arithmetic is highly site-dependent. A deep, hot, heavily ventilated operation gets a very different answer from a shallow one near a cheap grid.

That is why a decade of product availability has not produced a wholesale replacement cycle. Battery machines carry a higher capital cost, introduce charging or battery-swap logistics, and ask maintenance crews to retrain on high-voltage systems. Mines adopt them where the ventilation saving is large enough, where regulation pushes, or where a new project can be designed around electric fleets from the start rather than retrofitted.

Shifting the value proposition from propulsion to productivity, if it holds up in practice, attacks the weakest part of that business case. Ventilation savings accrue to the mine's fixed cost base and are real but diffuse. Faster, more accurate development is a direct operating gain, and development metres are the bottleneck on almost every underground project schedule.

What to watch from here

Three things will tell you whether this is a product direction or a positioning statement. First, whether Sandvik's next-generation development drills are specified with battery capacity meaningfully larger than what tramming alone requires — surplus storage is the tell that the pack is meant to do work at the face. Second, whether customer sites publish advance-rate comparisons rather than diesel-litres-avoided. Third, whether order intake in underground drilling starts to skew toward battery variants without the incentive of a ventilation-constrained mine behind it.

The wider backdrop is a mining industry under pressure to supply copper, nickel and lithium-bearing ore at scale while grades fall and orebodies sit deeper. Deeper mines are hotter mines, and hotter mines pay more for air. That alone keeps electrification on the agenda. But the equipment maker that can show the battery earns its keep while the machine is standing still and drilling — not just while it is driving — has a considerably stronger argument to make to a capital committee.

Key facts

• Who spoke: Johannes Välivaara, President, Underground Drilling, Sandvik
• Stated shift: Battery-electric focus moving from vehicle propulsion to improving the drilling process itself
• Track record: Sandvik has carried at least one battery-electric development drill for a decade
• Market backdrop (30 Sep 2026, 20:00 GMT): S&P 500 (SPY) $762.48, -0.23% on the day

Frequently asked questions

What is a development drill in underground mining?

A development drill, or jumbo, bores the blast holes that advance a tunnel, decline or drift toward and through an orebody. It is distinct from a production drill, which drills the larger patterns used to blast ore itself. Development metres typically set the pace of an underground project's schedule, making the machine a bottleneck asset.

What did Sandvik actually say?

Johannes Välivaara, President, Underground Drilling at Sandvik Mining, told International Mining in September 2026 that the company wants to shift the battery-electric dynamic in underground drilling away from being purely about vehicle propulsion, so that battery technology also directly improves the drilling process. Sandvik has had at least one battery-electric development drill in its portfolio for a decade.

Why have battery-electric drills been easier to adopt than battery trucks?

Development drills tram short distances between headings and then sit stationary for long periods while connected to the mine's electrical supply. That duty cycle means a modest battery is sufficient and charging opportunities are frequent. Haul trucks, by contrast, need large packs, long ramp climbs and dedicated charging or battery-swap infrastructure to match diesel availability.

How does electrification reduce mine ventilation costs?

Diesel engines underground produce heat and exhaust particulates that must be diluted with fresh air, so mines size their ventilation fans around the diesel fleet. Fans can consume a large share of a mine's electricity. Removing or reducing diesel machines allows lower airflow requirements, cutting both the fan power bill and the capital cost of ventilation infrastructure.

Who competes with Sandvik in underground drilling equipment?

The top end of the underground mining equipment market is concentrated among a small number of global original equipment manufacturers, with Epiroc the most frequently cited peer in drilling rigs. All major suppliers have introduced battery-electric variants of loaders, trucks, bolters and drills in recent years, and product claims across the field have largely converged.

What would show this shift is working rather than marketing?

Three markers matter: development drills specified with battery capacity larger than tramming alone requires, customer sites reporting advance-rate and cost-per-metre comparisons rather than diesel litres avoided, and order intake skewing toward battery variants at mines that are not ventilation-constrained and therefore have no obvious air-quality reason to switch.

Sources

• Sandvik on the latest leaps in underground development drilling — International Mining

Photo: jplenio · Pixabay Content License — source