Sandvik’s higher recycled carbide in PowerCarbide: drilling impacts for engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on International Mining – News
30 Second Briefing
Sandvik is raising recycled carbide content in its premium PowerCarbide® rock drilling grades from about 50% to as much as 75%, cutting dependence on virgin tungsten and cobalt while keeping wear resistance and penetration performance for hard-rock blasthole and drifting applications. Announced at its Future of Mining 2026 event, the move relies on closed-loop recovery of worn drill bits and inserts from mine sites. For drill-and-blast engineers, the change offers lower embedded CO₂ in consumables without altering bit selection, drilling parameters or expected service life.
Technical Brief
- Similar closed-loop schemes could be extended to raise recycled content in other cemented carbide tooling lines.
Our Take
Across our Mining coverage, Sandvik’s Future of Mining 2026 presence in Tampere is dominated by automation, electrification and AI themes; pushing recycled carbide content in PowerCarbide into the 75% range signals that tooling sustainability is being elevated to the same strategic tier as digital and battery-electric systems.
The concurrent SEK260 million expansion of Sandvik’s Tampere rock drill plant suggests that higher recycled carbide content is being engineered to scale in core production, which is likely to give OEM customers a lower embedded-carbon option without changing drill fleet suppliers.
For mines evaluating Deswik NOVA and other Sandvik digital tools, higher recycled content in wear parts provides an additional lever for ESG reporting, as it allows operators to claim incremental Scope 3 reductions tied directly to drill and bit procurement choices.
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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