{"id":41391,"date":"2024-01-03T07:26:15","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T07:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa"},"modified":"2024-01-03T07:50:56","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T07:50:56","slug":"flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa","title":{"rendered":"FLANDERS converts blasthole drill for autonomy at Debswana\u2019s Orapa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>Late last year, leading autonomous drilling technology provider FLANDERS embarked on a project to begin automation of the blasthole drilling fleet at Debswana\u2019s Orapa diamond mining operation in Botswana, situated 240 km west of Francistown. The conversion of the first drill to autonomous operation, an Epiroc Pit Viper PV-271, has now been completed, which will also have the distinction of being the first autonomous drill in Botswana.<\/b><\/p>\n

The conversion to the ARDVARC system was carried out by FLANDERS\u2019 South Africa-based team working closely with local technicians and the Debswana staff at Orapa. It marks the beginning of a new way for the mine to carry out drilling, with operators now monitoring the autonomous rigs from an air conditioned command centre well away from the high temperatures of the open pit itself.In some online comments on the project, Johan Booysen, FLANDERS\u2019 Senior Operations Manager, based in Middelburg, Mpumalanga, South Africa, stated: \u201cOnce again, we are pleased to announce that the project was delivered on time and within the expected quality standards. This was only possible through the close collaboration with our valued customer. With the lead of Jackson Moore, SA Product Support Specialist, the team which comprised of South African FLANDERS employees as well as technicians from Botswana, completed the autonomous solution conversion, on time and meeting quality standards.\u201dA nod was also given to Kane Van Boxtel for flying in from Australia as FLANDERS\u2019 Automation Implementation Specialist for this build, to ensure the command centre and technical setup are completed.<\/p>\n

FLANDERS says it has not only executed the conversion of the first autonomous drill in Botswana, but as part of that has up-skilled a number of individuals in Botswana to work with the new technology. This year 2024 is kicking off with the communications link establishment between the drill and the command centre, fine tuning the drill parameters, and of course making the first full autonomously drilled holes in Botswana.<\/p>\n

Booysen added: \u201cAt the hands of the site\u2019s senior leadership team we are confident that this drill will be a benchmark autonomous drill, considering the excellent mining standards observed. In addition, the mine\u2019s leadership\u2019s change management process was shared with FLANDERS EVP Willie van Ryneveld and GM Hein Grosskopf. We are excited to see the expected performance of this drill become a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. Late last year, leading autonomous drilling technology provider FLANDERS embarked on a project to begin automation of the blasthole drilling fleet at Debswana\u2019s Orapa diamond mining operation in Botswana, situated 240 km west of Francistown. The conversion of the first drill to autonomous operation, an Epiroc Pit Viper PV-271, has now been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":41390,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,7],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-41391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-head-lines","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nFLANDERS converts blasthole drill for autonomy at Debswana\u2019s Orapa - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Late last year, leading autonomous drilling technology provider FLANDERS embarked on a project to begin automation of ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FLANDERS converts blasthole drill for autonomy at Debswana\u2019s Orapa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Late last year, leading autonomous drilling technology provider FLANDERS embarked on a project to begin automation of ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Botswana\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-03T07:26:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-03T07:50:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2024\/01\/sm_1704255457.454757.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"FLANDERS converts blasthole drill for autonomy at Debswana\u2019s Orapa\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-03T07:26:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-03T07:50:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa\"},\"wordCount\":408,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2024\/01\/sm_1704255457.454757.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Botswana\",\"Botswana\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"head lines\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa\",\"name\":\"FLANDERS converts blasthole drill for autonomy at Debswana\u2019s Orapa - Botswana\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2024\/01\/sm_1704255457.454757.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-03T07:26:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-03T07:50:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Late last year, leading autonomous drilling technology provider FLANDERS embarked on a project to begin automation of ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2024\/01\/sm_1704255457.454757.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2024\/01\/sm_1704255457.454757.jpg\",\"width\":1600,\"height\":900,\"caption\":\"FLANDERS converts blasthole drill for autonomy at Debswana\u2019s Orapa\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"FLANDERS converts blasthole drill for autonomy at Debswana\u2019s Orapa\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/\",\"name\":\"Botswana\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"FLANDERS converts blasthole drill for autonomy at Debswana\u2019s Orapa - Botswana","description":"Late last year, leading autonomous drilling technology provider FLANDERS embarked on a project to begin automation of ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"FLANDERS converts blasthole drill for autonomy at Debswana\u2019s Orapa","og_description":"Late last year, leading autonomous drilling technology provider FLANDERS embarked on a project to begin automation of ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa","og_site_name":"Botswana","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2024-01-03T07:26:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-01-03T07:50:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1600,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2024\/01\/sm_1704255457.454757.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"FLANDERS converts blasthole drill for autonomy at Debswana\u2019s Orapa","datePublished":"2024-01-03T07:26:15+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-03T07:50:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa"},"wordCount":408,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2024\/01\/sm_1704255457.454757.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Botswana","Botswana"],"articleSection":["all news","economy","head lines"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa","name":"FLANDERS converts blasthole drill for autonomy at Debswana\u2019s Orapa - Botswana","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2024\/01\/sm_1704255457.454757.jpg","datePublished":"2024-01-03T07:26:15+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-03T07:50:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Late last year, leading autonomous drilling technology provider FLANDERS embarked on a project to begin automation of ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2024\/01\/sm_1704255457.454757.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/botswana\/sites\/38\/2024\/01\/sm_1704255457.454757.jpg","width":1600,"height":900,"caption":"FLANDERS converts blasthole drill for autonomy at Debswana\u2019s Orapa"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/flanders-converts-blasthole-drill-for-autonomy-at-debswanas-orapa#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"FLANDERS converts blasthole drill for autonomy at Debswana\u2019s Orapa"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/","name":"Botswana","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}