The El Sauce mine in Chile, owned by the Las Cenizas Mining Group, is believed to be the first company in the mining industry to renew its entire fleet of rock drills as the pathway to a more profitable future. Located about 170 km north of Santiago, the capital, El Sauce had been suffering for some time from declining productivity, and in mid-2014 an investigation was launched to identify the cause.
After several months, investigators announced they had found the source of the problem; excessive downtime of production drilling equipment due to insufficient service and maintenance of rock drills. As a result, a plan was launched to optimize rock drill availability with the support of experts from Atlas Copco – a cooperation that subsequently led to the renewal of all rock drills and hoses.