Sandvik leveraging global foundation for Australia and New Zealand context
Anyone fronting a sales division in the Australian mining market for a major OEM will have a busy – and interesting – schedule. For Sandvik, that man is now Craig Johnston (VP Sales Area Australia & New Zealand), who took on the role earlier this year, following stints in Sandvik Mining’s Parts & Service, Ground Support and Rock Tools divisions in Australia and abroad.
IM put some questions to Johnston to gauge how important the local market is for Sandvik as a group, as well as get his views on the region’s increasing uptake of new technologies.
IM: How does the Australian and New Zealand market differ from the other markets Sandvik is serving? Does the higher prevalence of contract miners in the country require a slightly different offering from other markets Sandvik serves?
CJ: Sales Area Australia & New Zealand is strategically important for several reasons. Firstly, Australia is one of the world’s largest mining markets, with significant production volumes across iron ore, gold, coal, copper and critical minerals. It is also one of the most technologically advanced mining markets globally, with the region often leading the way in the adoption of new mining technologies.
What is developed and proven in Australian operations can often influence mining practices in other parts of the world, so strong partnerships here can create broader opportunities well beyond the local market.
In terms of the higher prevalence of contract miners, yes, they play a much larger role in Australia than in many other regions, and that does shape how we engage with the market. Contractors operate in a dynamic environment, where fleet flexibility, rapid mobilisation, reliable performance and strong lifecycle support are critical. That requires us to be responsive not only in how we supply equipment, but also in how we support availability, parts, service and technical expertise across multiple sites.
IM: Along these same lines, how are you able to tailor what is a global platform to Australian operating specifics (like the opportunity to use some rigs for two or more applications in an underground mining context)?
CJ: Sandvik’s strength is that we bring a global technology platform but apply it with a strong understanding of local mining conditions and operating practices. In Australia, that means working closely with customers to adapt equipment, automation capabilities and service support to the realities of local mine designs, production demands and workforce requirements.
A good example is the way Australian underground miners often look for greater flexibility from their fleet. Rather than treating equipment as fixed to a single task, there is strong interest here in platforms that can be configured or applied across multiple applications where it makes operational sense. Sandvik is well placed to support that because our equipment is built on common global platforms, with modular design principles, digital connectivity and a broad application knowledge base drawn from operations around the world. That gives us the ability to tailor machine configurations, tooling, software, automation packages and support models to suit the specific needs of an Australian mine site.
Australia is also a highly advanced market, so customer feedback here plays an important role in shaping how we localise global offerings. Mines are typically looking for high utilisation, strong reliability, operator safety and the flexibility to respond to changing orebody conditions and mine plans. That is where Sandvik’s local teams work closely with customers to optimise machine selection, application fit and lifecycle support – while still leveraging the scale, R&D and proven performance of a global platform.
Ultimately, it is not about creating a completely separate Australian product set. It is about taking a strong global foundation and adapting it in a practical way so customers in Australia can get more value from their fleet, including opportunities to use equipment more flexibly, improve productivity, and support safer, more efficient underground operations.
IM: In what specific areas of the mining technology and innovation space do you see Australia leading the way? Can you point out any areas where direct feedback from Australian miners is informing the technology roadmap for the company on a global basis?
CJ: Australia is certainly leading the way when it comes to testing and deploying mining automation. We had early automation trials taking place at the Northparkes mines in the late 1990s with AutoMine® deployed around 2010, and the mine reached fully automated loader production by 2014. From there we’ve worked with numerous Australian mining companies and contractors to continue to improve our automation offering.
Just recently, at George Fisher Mine, Sandvik worked with Glencore to successfully transition from automated loading to a fully integrated autonomous load-and-haul system underground. We started automating their Sandvik LH517 loaders in 2020, with the operation scaling up to a fleet of around 10 automated loaders capable of tramming, dumping and, more recently, completing full cycles autonomously. In 2024, three automated Sandvik TH663i trucks were introduced, which marked a major step forward in achieving full automated haulage on site.
Together, these machines can now operate 24/7 on separate levels of the mine, delivering significant improvements in safety by removing operations from high-risk areas, while also increasing productivity through higher utilisation and the elimination of shift-change delays.
We have also worked in close partnership with the underground mining contractors, such as Byrnecut, Barminco (owned by Perenti) and Macmahon on developing the next generation of our load-and-haul solutions, where we are taking direct feedback from Australian operating environments to shape and develop our diesel-electric loader and truck offering. These partnerships ensure that the diesel-electric platforms that we’re designing are designed with practical underground operating realities in mind.
This collaborative model extends beyond equipment all the way to gaining customer feedback on the performance of our rock tools and ground engaging solutions, due to the hard, abrasive rock formations found in Australia’s mining environment. The insights gained from Australian operations directly inform our global product development teams – optimising carbide button design and steel quality – so these tools can withstand the toughest applications worldwide.
IM: Where, broadly, do you see Australia in terms of maturity with automation, digitalisation and electrification? When it comes to the latter, do you see any regulation changes having a positive impact on the technology adoption curve?
CJ: With automation on the surface, this is now very mature. Automated haulage systems and drilling systems are quite widely adopted, however there are still gaps in certain applications. One example with surface drilling is in the contour and secondary drilling applications. This still has not been widely adopted yet due to both the availability of technology and appetite beyond production drilling.
We are now seeing a lot more interest in this space as the maturity with customers develops, taking advantage of the safety and productivity benefits that remotely automating these processes can deliver.
And Sandvik’s AutoMine technology and DI650i drill rigs are well positioned to provide a solution here, with full remote automation capability of the machine and the ability to remotely operate multiple types of drill rigs, rotary, boom and top hammer from the same operating station.
With underground, as mentioned with the customer partnerships, we have seen a really strong take up with automated technologies in Australia over the past five years. Particularly when it comes to loader and production drill remote automation.
We are now starting to see a strong appetite and shift with regard to underground truck automation in Australia, something that we have traditionally been slow to take up when compared with the rest of the world. With shorter project lifecycles and limited relevant applications, there has sometimes been a struggle with the business case for adoption. Today, we are seeing the technology able to gain value in more applications and, because of the strong adoption of loader automation, we are able to make the business case stronger by already having a lot of the infrastructure and investment in place.
From a digitalisation perspective, we are seeing more maturity around the requirement of systems to be interoperable and talk to each other, looking to gain value from a complete digital ecosystem. This is more important when we see mine operators talking about ‘zero entry’, to be able to remove more elements of human intervention in an operation; one of the roadblocks is enabling systems to work together. We see UFR playing a pivotal role in this for us, supporting interoperable and agnostic operation.
We are still seeing vehicle interaction incidents every year in the mining industry and, as a by-product of this, there is a bigger demand in reliable collision avoidance technologies. We at Sandvik, on an interoperability level, see collision avoidance as a future automation safety system layer. Any regulatory changes towards this from a safety perspective could very much drive industry investment, leading towards more opportunities for technologies that enable safer and more productive mixed-autonomous environments.
IM: Anything else to add on the lines of equipment and technology adoption in Australia and New Zealand?
CJ: Australia, and increasingly New Zealand, continue to stand out as highly advanced markets for mining and infrastructure equipment and technology adoption, with customers playing an important role in shaping how products evolve to meet changing demands. These are markets where operators are highly engaged and willing to provide practical, experience-based feedback on performance, application fit and opportunities for improvement. That feedback is extremely valuable, helping Sandvik not only support local operations more effectively, but also inform ongoing product development and continuous improvement across our global offering.
One of the strongest examples of this is the way Australian customers engage so directly with Sandvik on product performance, operational challenges and future needs. Our recent Load and Haul TCO Workshop, which was held in Perth and brought together more than 70 participants from 13 customer organisations, is a good example of that in action. It showed the value Australian miners place on collaboration, data-driven improvement and open feedback, while also giving our local and global teams direct insight that helps shape ongoing product development and technology adoption.
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