Epiroc’s Pit Viper: autonomous drilling lessons for mine planners and D&B engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on International Mining – News
30 Second Briefing
Epiroc’s Pit Viper blasthole drill, introduced 25 years ago, remains a flagship high‑capacity rig in large open pits, combining high power with flexible mast and hole configurations for production drilling. The platform has operated autonomously for the past decade, with fleets running driverless drill patterns and remote supervision from control centres rather than on‑bench cabins. For mine planners and drill‑and‑blast engineers, the Pit Viper’s long autonomous track record is a key reference point for integrating automated drilling into existing benches, patterns and safety envelopes.
Technical Brief
- Pit Viper rigs integrate high‑pressure rotary or DTH drilling systems for large‑diameter blastholes.
- Mast options allow multiple bench heights and angled drilling, reducing secondary blasting and wall instability.
- Onboard drill management systems regulate weight‑on‑bit and rotation torque to minimise bit failure and rod breakage.
- Autonomous operation removes personnel from high‑risk benches, eliminating exposure to flyrock and fall‑of‑ground.
- Collision‑avoidance and geofencing functions enforce exclusion zones around rigs and active blast areas.
- Remote health monitoring flags over‑pull, stuck pipe and deviation issues before they escalate to safety incidents.
- Data logging of penetration rate and torque supports geotechnical domains and blast design refinement across benches.
Our Take
Epiroc is one of the more frequently recurring OEMs in our 393 Mining stories, and pairing a 25‑year Pit Viper platform with newer launches like the COPROD 89 drilling system suggests the company is deliberately extending the life of its installed base rather than betting solely on clean‑sheet rig designs.
Having Pit Viper rigs running autonomously for around a decade gives Epiroc a long operational data history, which operators can leverage to de‑risk adoption of newer drilling systems such as COPROD 89 by benchmarking performance and maintenance against a mature automation reference.
Within the 810 tag‑matched pieces on Projects, Product and Safety, Epiroc’s automation track record on Pit Viper positions it as a reference case when mines evaluate safety cases for autonomous blasthole drilling, especially where regulators or unions want evidence from long‑running fleets rather than pilot trials.
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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