Mining
Today, all production drilling at LKAB is operated with the water-powered DTH hammer from Wassara
Kiruna, Sweden
LKAB
W100 Hammer
When LKAB scaled up their production in 1990, they needed a drilling technology that could provide 60 meter long blast holes with a deviation of max 1.5% and to a lower energy cost.
Over 18 million meters of blast holes have been drilled with Wassara in the LKAB iron ore mines.
LKAB drilling today
Today, all production drilling in LKAB mines is running with water-powered equipment from Wassara. The boreholes are up to 56 meters, depending on the shape of the ore body. The rate of penetration is 0.5 to 1 meter per minute with 115 mm drill bits.
Apart from production drilling, media holes and slots are also drilled with Wassara.
Borehole accuracy gets crucial
The longer the borehole we get, the more important the straightness gets. Less deviation is simply crucial to maintain good fragmentation of the ore when blasting. The maximum allowed borehole deviation in LKAB is 1.5%.
The Wassara-technology meets this requirement every day.
| DTH Hammer | W100 Hammer |
| Drill bit | Ø 115 mm |
| Drilling fluid | Clean water |
| Rig | Atlas Copco Simba / Sandvik Solo |
| Water pump | Kamat / Hammelmann |
| Borehole length | Up to 56 meters (190 ft) |
| Geologic formation | Iron ore and waste rock |
See our featured Case studies below to learn what real world Mining-projects our technology as been a part of.
