Digital Breakthrough Underground
The “Tunneling Drilling Assistant” makes mining more precise, safer, and more cost-effective.
No Errors and No Waste Rock
Norilsk Nickel has begun pilot industrial trials of the Russian hardware-and-software system known as the Tunneling Drilling Assistant (TDA) at its Oktyabrsky and Skalisty mines. The innovative tool was developed jointly with the Experimental Station for Mineral Resource Development and the company’s Digital Technology Development Center.
The system addresses a critical industry challenge – inaccurate drilling, which leads to ore dilution with waste rock, higher costs, and increased safety risks. TDA combines a robotic total station, an onboard computer with intuitive software, and a set of sensors to deliver high-precision positioning of drilling equipment and automatic adherence to a digital borehole passport. This approach minimizes human error and ensures consistent work quality, directly improving operational reliability underground.
As part of the same “Innovation Vertical” program, Norilsk Nickel, together with one of Russia’s leading developers, Reksoft, has created a Robotic Rock Breaker system for automated crushing of oversized rock fragments. Built on Russian software, the solution consists of four subsystems – machine vision, decision-making, motion control, and safety with monitoring. The system detects objects in the work zone, including personnel and equipment, and delivers high-precision strikes without operator involvement. Its flexible architecture allows the use of equipment from different manufacturers. Following successful tests, pilot industrial operation is scheduled to begin in spring 2026.
From the Arctic North to Global South Markets
Norilsk Nickel’s developments represent a major step toward strengthening technological sovereignty for both the company and the broader mining sector. Successful trials of the TDA at the Severny mine of the Kola Mining and Metallurgical Company have already confirmed its effectiveness – survey-related defects were significantly reduced, directly boosting the profitability of tunneling operations.
The scale of TDA deployment extends far beyond a single enterprise. For Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest producer of nickel and palladium, it is a tool for improving operational efficiency under new economic conditions. For regions, it provides an incentive to develop digital skills and support local technology value chains. For Russia’s mining industry as a whole, the system demonstrates that domestic solutions can not only replace imports, but also outperform them in reliability and adaptation to local conditions.
Moreover, TDA has clear export potential. Countries with active underground mining operations in the Global South and Asia face the same challenges as Russian miners. If the system proves its universality and reliability across Norilsk Nickel’s large-scale projects, it could become a competitive export product in the industrial digital solutions market.
From Software to Robots
Over the past five years, Russia has successfully implemented import substitution projects spanning software to robotic systems. For example, NaftaGaz was the first in its sector to deploy its own drilling automation system, known as AKB, developed by its IT subsidiary Digital Drilling. Today, all of the company’s drilling rigs are equipped with these systems, increasing mechanical drilling speed by 10.5 percent. Similar solutions are actively used at facilities operated by Gazprom, Rosneft, and other major players.
In June 2025, Uralmash NPO Holding unveiled its robotic complex for automating tripping operations – a ground-up development built entirely on Russian software. The system not only reduces operation time, but also improves safety, which is especially critical in the harsh conditions of the Far North.
RINGEL, one of the leaders in Russia’s market for control systems for intelligent drilling rigs, registered four innovative products in the national software registry in 2024 – IR-Master, IR-Assistant, IR-OperBot, and IR-Vision. These solutions marked an important step toward creating the digital drilling rig of the future. Over the past five years, more than 1,400 wells have been drilled using RINGEL technologies, while average mechanical drilling speed increased by 19 percent. In June 2025, the company applied digital technologies for the first time in Russia during the construction of a geothermal well, using the automated IR-OperBot system developed in-house during pilot industrial trials.
Norilsk Nickel continues this trend, prioritizing in-house development and partnerships with Russian research centers.
Autonomous Drilling of the Future
Digital assistants are already a key tool for improving efficiency, safety, and sustainability in Russia’s underground mining sector, setting a new standard for precision, reliability, and digital maturity.
Future development of the TDA includes deep integration with corporate digital platforms, the use of artificial intelligence to forecast optimal drilling parameters, and, in the long term, a transition to fully autonomous drilling complexes. These solutions not only raise productivity and safety levels, but also strengthen Russia’s technological sovereignty by reducing dependence on imported technologies. At the same time, Russian advances in digital drilling open significant export opportunities, particularly in markets seeking to diversify their energy and industrial technologies.
