Champion Iron Limited has signed a deal with Caterpillar with the aim to to implement artificial intelligence-based advanced drilling technologies on Cat equipment at the company’s Bloom Lake iron ore mine in Canada’s Québec.
“The project will progressively implement a remote-controlled, semi-au-tonomous and fully autonomous Cat electric drilling fleet, utilizing the Technologies engineered, designed, and/or integrated by Caterpillar. With Champion contributing its experienced workforce, and Caterpillar’s independent dealer, Toromont Cat, its aftermarket support, the collabora-tion will aim to optimize Bloom Lake's operational productivity and reduce energy consumption, while demonstrating the capabilities of Caterpillar's advanced drilling technologies,” Caterpillar said in a statement accompa-nying the contract.
David Cataford, the CEO of Champion Iron, commented that, the “Bloom Lake team has already demonstrated its ability to operate at a consistently high level, since commissioning the mine in 2018. In doing so, we have continuously strived to improve operations utilizing the best existing and new prospective mining technologies. Drill-to-mill aligns with our core value of respecting the land that we exploit, as it will enable us to respon-sibly extract non-renewable resources using the best means possible.”