The system is deployed in Queensland, Australia.

It allows the machine to automatically handle its own drill string, taking only 2.1 minutes to add a rod and 3.3 minutes to rack.

The machine can also align itself to within one degree of the design heading of the hole and automatically set the proper mast angle.

This helps reduce operator error and provides what Flanders calls “unprecedented” drillhole position, depth and angle accuracy.

These help coal operations to better cast blast overburden shots without damaging the integrity of the coal seams, which, in turn, reduces the need for production dozing and improves dragline or shovel productivity.

Flanders product support director Curtis Stacy called Ardvarc a “state-of-the-art automation technology that no one else, including the OEMs, have been able to deliver”

“We have removed operators from harm’s way, have improved fragmentation consistency and increased drilling efficiency because that’s what matters to our customers,” he said.

What other drill makers make of it remains to be seen.

Atlas Copco, for one, has a range of automation options.

Mining company Rio Tinto has also spent a lot of money to automate drill rigs on its sites.