For the past decade IMA Engineering has been developing sensor applications for any type of blasthole and reverse circulation drill rigs, with its IMA Blasthole Sampler Analyzers.
Mr. Ilpo Auranen, Chairman of IMA Engineering has been recently interviewed by Dan Gleeson from the International Mining Magazine on the topic of automating the sampling and analysis process when carrying out drilling.
According to Mr. Auranen, autonomous drilling operations have been an option for companies in the most established mining regions for more than a half decade. Despite the established nature of the technology, no miners or OEMs to date have looked to complete the automation loop with a robotised sampling and analysis system.
