Epiroc’s 47th autonomous drill in Chile: RCS 5.12 design notes for D&B engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on International Mining – News
30 Second Briefing
Epiroc has delivered its 47th autonomous Pit Viper blasthole drill to Chilean surface mines, signalling broad deployment of OEM automation across large copper operations. The latest rigs run Epiroc’s RCS 5.12 control platform, which supports multi‑machine control, higher‑precision drilling and integration with fleet management and blast design systems for optimised patterns and reduced dilution. For mine planners and drill‑and‑blast engineers, the scale of deployment in Chile provides a mature reference case for autonomous drill fleets in complex, high‑altitude open pits.
Technical Brief
- Autonomous cycle includes collaring, drilling, cleaning and retracting, with operator intervention mainly for exceptions.
Our Take
Epiroc’s 47th autonomous drill in Chile lines up with several recent items in our database showing the company pushing deeper automation, including the extension of its Deep Automation system to surface haul roads (3 September 2026), signalling a strategy to offer mine-wide autonomous ecosystems rather than stand‑alone rigs.
The focus on RCS5.12 in Chile comes as Epiroc is also rolling out automation‑enabling hardware like the Automatic Bit Changer to more drill platforms (2 September 2026), which likely means Chilean fleets will be early candidates for fully automated drilling and consumable handling in a single control environment.
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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