Swedish industrial technology company Hexagon has strengthened its drill and blast portfolio with the purchase of Australia's Minnovare, a drilling technology provider for the underground mining industry.

Hexagon said Minnovare's automation technology can eliminate the "manual, labour intensive and unproductive processes" in underground mining, leading to blast-hold deviation, dilution, and downtime. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

According to Hexagon, Minnovare's hardware and data-capture software can deliver "drill-data faster and more accurately than ever before." This can improve underground drilling operations' efficiency, productivity, and overall profitability.

"Today's acquisition accelerates and enhances Hexagon's underground development roadmap as well as strengthening our formidable drill and blast portfolio,"  said Hexagon's Mining division chief technology officer, Rob Daw

The Minnovare solution, which will be incorporated into Hexagon's Mining division,  combines sensors and data analytics to address deficiencies in existing drilling processes across the resource, definition, development and production phases. 

Hexagon president and chief executive officer Ola Rollen said the integration of Minnovare's mining solutions would "prove invaluable" for the company's customers, who want to improve underground drilling speed, cost, and accuracy.

"Today's acquisition strengthens our formidable drill and blast portfolio and accelerates our underground development roadmap," Rollen said.

"We also see opportunities for international expansion of Minnovare's portfolio throughout Hexagon's global footprint."