Donnelly Blasting’s Sandvik drill rig fleet: risk and fragmentation notes for mines
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
Donnelly Blasting Services is expanding its Queensland quarry and construction work with four Sandvik drill rigs, including the Leopard DI650i and Pantera DP1100i, to deliver contract drill-and-blast across multiple greenfield and brownfield sites. The Jimboomba-based family business, led by Jason, Jake and Dan Donnelly, is standardising on Sandvik’s i-series rigs to gain common parts, remote diagnostics and consistent drilling parameters across different benches and rock types. For mine and quarry owners, the model shifts capital and maintenance risk to a specialist contractor while tightening control over fragmentation, vibration and compliance.
Technical Brief
- Sandvik i-series rigs allow remote monitoring and diagnostics, reducing unplanned downtime on dispersed contracts.
- Common control systems across rigs simplify operator training and reduce human error in pattern execution.
- Standardised drilling parameters support consistent fragmentation, improving crusher throughput and blast cost predictability.
- Centralised parts inventory for one OEM cuts spares holding costs and shortens maintenance turnaround.
- Remote support from technicians supplements in-house fitters for complex electrical or software faults.
- Model reinforces a shift toward outsourced drill-and-blast fleets on smaller mining and construction projects lacking capital for dedicated rigs.
Our Take
Sandvik appears frequently in our 1240 Mining stories as an OEM winning sizeable plant and fleet orders – such as the SEK 175 million Malmberget crushing package – so a contract with a regional player like Donnelly Blasting Services in Queensland signals its parallel push to lock in smaller, service-led drill and blast work in Australia.
The cluster of recent Sandvik coverage on continuous miners, upgraded jaw crushers and the Diemme Filtration acquisition suggests the company is building a more integrated rock-processing and excavation offering, which contractors like Donnelly Blasting Services in Jimboomba can leverage to standardise on a single supplier across drilling, blasting and downstream handling.
With many of the 2419 tag-matched pieces focused on large mine operators, the focus here on an Australian contractor in Queensland highlights how OEMs such as Sandvik are increasingly using regional service contracts and local assembly (as seen at Heatherbrae in New South Wales) to shorten support chains for smaller, decentralised blasting businesses.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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