Growth, digitalization and sustainability
Shift to growth
Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions experienced strong momentum and record orders within automation, surface drilling and electric mining equipment. We introduced several innovations, including a higher-capacity battery for battery-electric (BEVs) loaders and trucks.
We continued to build an extensive surface drilling portfolio and introduced Sandvik® DR413i, a surface drill rig in our intelligent rotary blasthole range, Ranger® DX910, a powerful drill rig with intelligent features and a concept surface drill rig. We also acquired a new testing facility in Finland to develop and prove future surface drilling technologies and received our largest-ever order for surface drilling, valued at SEK 248 million.
The leveraging of acquisitions made in previous years, such as Deswik (mine planning software), contributed to double digit growth for the eleventh consecutive quarter in our Digital Mining Technologies business. In 2023 we acquired Polymathian Industrial Mathematics, an Australia-based provider of advanced mine optimization software and services and we strengthened our presence in South America with the acquisition of MCB Services and Minerals, a mining software and services provider.
Sandvik received an order from Canadian mining company Torex Gold Resources for a 35-unit mining equipment fleet valued at SEK 650 million and an order from a customer in Australia for underground equipment valued at SEK 460 million. We celebrated the delivery of our one thousandth Toro™ TH551 and TH663 large trucks.
The parts, services and consumables business accounted for 66 percent (69) of revenues. We invested SEK 260 million to increase our rock drill production capacity in Tampere (Finland).
Digital shift
We have a unique end-to-end ecosystem of digital solutions, including automation solutions, mine planning software and an AI-enabled Remote Monitoring Service, used by customers for predictive maintenance. Through our mining simulation tools, we are partnering with customers and generating sales by, for example, illustrating the type and size of fleet needed in an electric mine.
Sandvik became the first OEM to introduce a unified traffic management system for drills, loaders and trucks with AutoMine® tele-remote solution that enables operators to remotely and simultaneously control and supervise multiple automated Sandvik underground drills.
We made progress in our aim to bring automation to surface drilling, supplying Leopard® DI650i down-the-hole (DTH) drill rigs and AutoMine® surface drilling systems to a large European customer. We also launched My Sandvik Onsite, a monitoring solution that transforms data from Sandvik iSeries surface drill rigs into actionable insights for productivity improvements.
Sandvik received major orders from the Swedish mining company LKAB to supply automated loaders for use at the Kiruna mine in northern Sweden, the world’s largest underground iron ore mine. The orders are valued at approximately SEK 250 million and SEK 120 million, respectively.
Sustainability shift
We help our customers reduce their environmental impact primarily through our product offering. There is a strong demand for battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), which now account for approximately 15 percent of load and haul order intake. Electrification helps mine operators reach their sustainability targets and we have a unique electric product portfolio, which we are expanding to meet future needs. We take full end-to-end responsibility for batteries, including battery design and we now provide battery recycling options in areas where our BEVs operate. To further support electrification we invested in a new production unit in Malaysia for the manufacture of electric underground loaders and trucks and announced plans to expand our battery center of excellence in California, USA.
Our Charging While Drilling innovation received the 2023 Sandvik Sustainability Award in Memory of Sigrid Göransson. The technology for battery-electric drilling equipment in mines utilizes the drilling cycle to simultaneously charge the battery, removing approximately 12 tons of CO2 emissions per drill rig per year.
Sandvik has run carbide recycling programs for many years and in 2023 we rolled out an industry-first ‘opt-out’ recycling program for carbide drill bits, aiming to collect 90 percent of our own used drill bits by 2025. Other manufacturers’ used bits can also be recycled within the scope of the new initiative.
We signed a letter of intent with steelmaker SSAB, securing their fossil-free steel for the future production of Sandvik loaders and trucks.