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By Rolf Koenig

After the Dynatronic firing system was demonstrated for the first time at the SEE conference in Miami in 1987, it was officially approved in Germany at the beginning of 1993. Dynatronic has now been on the market for 5 years. At present, it is used in several European countries and successful test series have been running in Australia.

Jan 1, 1998

By Stephen Mansfield, Saran Sankar

The Sentinel open pit copper mine, operated by First Quantum Minerals Ltd, is located in the North West province of Zambia. The Sentinel orebody is a sediment-hosted, structurally modified deposit in which mineralisation is contained in the phyllite formation, which occurs as a series of layered, continuous sheets having a northerly 20 to 30⁰ dip. The persistent nature of the geological structure can lead to the generation of large slabs when joints are relatively close together or very large blocks when joints are more widely spaced. With standard blasting methodologies, the challenging fragmentation most commonly occurs in the stemming zone and blast interfaces, reducing excavation rates and increasing the risk of crusher bridging events and reduced throughput. A generalised approach to increase powder factor would increase in drill and blast costs and would not be sufficient to target the specific cause of the challenging fragmentation. Implementing differential blast energy based on post blast requirements for different material type, such as ore and waste, and rock mass characteristics is not new in the mining industry. High-energy blasts for ore aim to produce finer materials, enhancing downstream processes such as crushing and grinding, while reducing power consumption and increasing throughput. Conversely, waste rock often requires less energy in order to deliver optimised fragmentation for loading and hauling efficiency. Identifying and applying optimum blast energy to specific material type and geological domains will not only ensure smoother and efficient operations throughout downstream processes, but will have a direct impact on overall profitability of the entire operation. This paper will describe the methods used to model and implement differential blasting across a range of material types in order to deliver the required blast outcomes for ore and waste and the impact on downstream processes and drill and blast unit cost.

Jan 21, 2025

By M. L. Mendes, J. Q. Nojiri, S. C. Botelho, A. P. Campanha

In February 28, 2001 JOULE coordinated the first tests with an electronic detonator in South America at an iron ore operation - ITABIRA MINES from the Brazilian COMPANHIA VALE DO RIO DOCE (CVRD) - the largest producer and exporter of iron ore in the world. ITABIRA MINES (CAU and CONCEI O) belong to one of the complexes, called the Southern System, producing 56 million tons of ROM as well as concentrated products and pellets. This paper is going to describe the tests at ITABIRA MINES with results indicating the improvement in the excavator productivity and reduction of the mining global costs (due to the better performance of the equipment and potential reduction of the maintenance cost).

Jan 1, 2002

By J. P. Proulx, Richard O’Meara, Ruilin Yang

A blast optimization project was carried out at an Open Pit Metal Mine using the Multiple Blasthole Fragmentation (MBF) Model and the Multiple Seed Waveform (MSW) blast vibration model. The aim of the project was to optimize rock fragmentation of the ore blasts to significantly increase metal recoveries while keeping the blast vibration levels at the highwall under control. The project also examined the blasts in the waste rock using the Fragmentation model to expand the blast pattern and select economical explosives for drill and blast cost savings while minimizing any adverse effect on the dig rates. Two sets of near field signature blasthole tests were conducted in both hard ore and relatively soft waste rock. The information from the near-field signature blasthole vibration was used as input to both the MBF and MSW models, as site specific geological information interacting with blasting. The implementation of the full blast design is also input to the MBF and MSW models. A production blast for each rock type was monitored for blast vibration and rock fragmentation. The full blast information and the blast results are used to calibrate and validate the models. The Fragmentation and Vibration model were established for the two rock types at the mine. At each site the Fragmentation modeling was conducted in parallel to the Vibration modeling to ensure blast vibrations were under control while the rock fragmentation was improved. The Fragmentation MBF and MSW are each an integral part of the blast optimization tool. Various scenarios using different explosives, hole delays and blast patterns were modeled for rock fragmentation and blast vibration. The recommendations from the modeling project were to be field trialed at the mine. The implementation of the recommendations was expected to help the mine significantly in terms of the mining economics, and high wall stability and safety.

By Philip M. E Thomas

For over sixty years man has struggled to defeat the natural swamp lands known as the Florida Everglades as demand for land to support the burgeoning population growth in the state continued almost unchecked. Over the past ten years there has been a growing awareness that this land development could wipe out a whole ecosystem in a very short time unless steps were taken to reverse the trends. In 1991, a state law called the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Everglades Protection Act was enacted giving power to the South Florida Water Management Board to condemn certain lands for conversion to manmade swamp lands, designed to filter polluting run-off water from the agricultural lands around Lake Ockeechobee.

Jan 1, 1994

Almost one half of Canada's total land surface is underlain by permafrost. This term describes the thermal condition of earth materials when their temperature remains below 0°C continuously for a number of years. The drilling and blasting of frozen materials requires more energy than the blasting of same in its unfrozen state. The cost of comminution could double in permafrost even with adequate organization, drilling equipment and proper explosives.

Jan 1, 1975

By Dale L. Ramsey

The Pinkerton Tunnel Open Cut Project is part of the National Gateway Clearance Initiative improvement project to achieve a minimum of 6.4 meters (21 feet) of vertical clearance along CSX Transportation rail corridor so that double-stacked intermodal railcars can be transported between Mid-Atlantic States and their ports to Midwest Markets in the U.S.

Jan 1, 2014

By D O. Tan Sky

This paper will describe the mechanisms involved in delay blasting and how they are applied with the use of D.S.B. It will examine the control of potential damage resulting from detonations, and show how good fragmentation and efficient recovery of this material blasted can be achieved.

Jan 1, 1980

By Sergio Segovia Parra, Victor Hernan Sheen Uriol

This contribution of the concept of mass blasting both closing and production allows breaking paradigms, to limit the number of tons to thunder. The areas of geotechnical different mining large mining companies worldwide and especially from the National Copper Corporation (CODELCO, Chile) has been declining volumes closing blasting and production, with the misconception to protect the end walls of the pit, before any geotechnical risks caused by various types of faults; especially the circular faults. A blasting of small tonnage can do more damage to a wall when it is not properly sequenced, leading to the coupling of the wave train and therefore the exponential damage in/s (peak particle velocity, PPV) on the wall of the Tagus. Blasting closing mass production and contribute technically and operationally in the dynamics of the following operations: loading, hauling, crushing, processing and preparation of the final product; eliminating delays to return to thunder small volumes where one must stop all mine equipment, incurring high costs and especially losing valuable time in the continuity of the following unit activities.

Jan 1, 2015

By John P. Ashby

Production blasting is a process of destruction of rock masses in order that ore may be extracted. Many open pit operations are faced with the apparently conflicting requirements of providing large quantities of fragmented rock for the processing plant and of minimizing the amount of damage inflicted upon the surrounding pit slopes. A reasonable compromise between these two conflicting demands may often be found by means of simple engineering of production blasts.

Jan 1, 1980

A major problem that has continued to plague the surface coal industry is blast induced damage to the coal seam. Atlas Powder Company has addresssed this situation through seven years of field research in full-scale production environments. Many operations across the United States have been evaluated.

Jan 1, 1990

By J R. "Dick" Daniel

Over the past several years, the Hercules Technical Service Group for the Explosives Department has produced a series of programs for the TI59 programmable calculator dealing with explosive application problems. These programs have been made available to both our internal staff and to the Hercules explosives distributor organization. Several of these programs have found good acceptance and wide usage.

Jan 1, 1984

By Dal Sun Kim, Michael K. McCarter

"Comminution (crushing and grinding) of rock materials is energy-intensive and expensive. Mucheffort has been directed to improve the efficiency of conventional milling practice, but relatively littleattention has been given to the potential benefits of blast-induced damage on comminution processes. To help assess this effect, research has been conducted at the IRECO Laboratory and the Generic Center for Comminution at the University of Utah. The objective of this research is to investigate the effect of shockinduced “crack-like” damage on rock properties and subsequent breakage efficiency for three petrologically different rock materials under laboratory conditions. In order to evaluate the effect of shockinduced damage, a quantitative measure of rock damage is needed. For this purpose, a scalar variable (0) is proposed."

Jan 1, 1993

By Graeme Exelby

The 4" Wassara water hammer was originally developed by G-Drill AB together with Swedish Mining Company LKAB for their underground long hole production drilling. Sandvik Rock Tools AB is responsible for the introduction of Wassara worldwide.

Jan 1, 1998

By Florian Bauer

The Fording River mine in British Columbia produces hard coking coal in an open pit operation. Coal seams are exposed by blasting overburden and digging blasted muck with rope shovels. The drilling and blasting process presents a considerable cost factor to the operation. Reducing the amount of explosives needed therefore contributes considerably to costs saving initiatives. However, reducing the powder factor only makes sense if the subsequent loading processes by the shovels are not compromised in terms of productivity.

Jan 1, 2014

By Thierry Bernard

Considering rock fragmentation by explosive as the ultimate goal in mines and quarries, vibrations are definitely one of the main drawbacks faced by the Industry. If we can accurately predict vibrations level and frequencies, taking into account the whole set of the involved parameters, this will bring a major benefit to each of us, in our daily production process optimization effort. The model presented in this paper answers to this need thanks to a "holistic" approach of the vibration mechanism. By holistic, we mean that we approach the vibration effect (wave propagation) as a whole, by understanding all of the mechanisms that contributes to the process and comprehending how they are connected.

Jan 1, 2009

By Dennis A. Clark, Richard E. Calvin

As the scarcity of mineral resources increase and subsurface mining activities expand along with simultaneous surface mining in coal, industrial minerals and rocks, along with metals, the need to insure safe conditions is paramount.

Jan 1, 1981

By Braden T. Lusk, Brett C. Jackson

The Kentucky Commissioner of the Department for Natural Resources, accompanied by a motion for accident prevention from Kentucky’s Explosive Industry and other associated fields, have requested for an Industry Flyrock Prevention Task Force to be formed by an Explosive Industry panel. This task force is led by Dr. Braden Lusk at the University of Kentucky. The mission of this task force is not only to identify the base causes of flyrock incidents based on analyzing historical data from events in the past, but also to track the advancement of flyrock elimination into the future.

Jan 1, 2014

By G Alan Foster

Because of the marked human response to blast effects and inherent defects present in many modern structures the real possibility of being named as a defendant in a law suit faces most blasters. Until recently even frivolous law suits involved a great deal of expense since legal costs were inevitably incurred whilst waiting for your day in court, which typically occurred some 2-4 years after the alleged damage took place.

Jan 1, 1989

By D T. Froedge

This paper is a presentation of a coyote shot at the Oriskany Sand Quarry of the Pennsylvania Glass Sand Corporation, Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.

Jan 1, 1982