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By M. S. Dotto

The knowledge of the explosive/ rock mass interaction process is important in predicting blast performance. It includes understanding rock properties, energy usage, and attenuation in the rock mass. The paper proposes a method to quantify blast-induced rock mass damage from the field measurements and apply it to modeling blast fragmentation.

Feb 1, 2020

By Ray Slavin, Remi Proulx

The Meikle Mine is a mature underground gold mine utilizing primary and secondary longhole open stoping method with delayed backfill. Combined production with the newly developed Rodeo Mine is 4700 tons per day (4265 tonnes per day) of ore. The vast majority of Meikle Mine production comes from secondary and remnant stope blocks. Remnant stopes are ore blocks that were left behind in the initial mining sequence due to various reasons. Mining of these remnant blocks has created many challenging blasting situations. The application of electronic initiation to blast remnant stopes has proven extremely beneficial. Electronic initiation has provided the blasting engineer with a high degree of flexibility with respect to timing to successfully extract these difficult stopes. Post blast assessment of the remnant stopes using the mine’s cavity monitoring system (CMS) demonstrates that the mine is maximizing ore recovery and minimizing waste dilution. The largest remnant stope blast to date required 54 holes and produced 6700 tons (6075 tonnes) of ore. Another area where the application of electronic detonators has proved successful is in the extraction of slots in which ground conditions are extremely poor. Taking the slot blasts in one shot with double-decked holes as opposed to two single-decked shots has eliminated the need to clean and or re-drill holes. The ability to open the slots in one blast has helped reduce the total mining cost. This concept has recently been expanded to blast complete stopes in one shot. This reduces the stope cycle time considerably and allows the mine to bring ore forward. Current plans for 2004 are to excavate 50% of mine wide stope production using electronic initiation technology.

Jan 1, 2004

By Joshua Calnan, Braden Lusk, Kyle Perry

This paper presents detailed information and data regarding the load transfer characteristics of Blast Resistant Glazing Systems utilizing two different thicknesses of polycarbonate. A series of triaxial load cells, along with surrogates of identical stiffness characteristics, were placed around the glazing perimeter to directly measure the load transferred to the support system from explosions of varying degrees. The blast loads were developed using an explosive driven shock tube administered by the University of Kentucky Explosives Research Team (UKERT) in Georgetown, KY. Results presented include distribution of loading, maximum load transferred to connections, blast pressure-time data, glazing system deflection-time data, and final performance results of each system. The two glazing systems respond differently to the applied blast loading. Differences and similarities in the load transfer characteristics are discussed. The experimental results are then compared to a commonly used blast resistant glazing system analysis software tool utilizing a Single Degree of Freedom (SDOF) method of analysis for each system. Preliminary results show that currently used models do not correspond well with experimental data.

Jan 1, 2014

By S. Hosein, W. Birch, C. Johnson

The widespread adoption of electronic detonators has given rise to the development of linear superposition to control the environmental impact on both third-party properties and residents resulting from blast induced vibrations. Linear superposition has become a very effective tool in the hands of blasting engineers and has enabled aggregate reserves to be accessed that once had to be abandoned. This in turn has resulted in more and more complex blasting pattern to be developed that contain multiple rows and multiple decks all with different maximum instantaneous charge weights of explosives. This is then made more complex by having to consider multiple sensitive locations often with different Peak Particle Velocity vibration limits. This paper is a case study of what did happen when a blast was designed that “pushed the boundaries” of environmental blast vibration design and control, without taking fully into account the fundamental geophysical properties of seismic waves. The resulting blast design caused a greatly enhanced s-wave to be created in a critical direction from the blast pattern. The root cause being the s-waves from earlier detonating decks in the blast pattern arriving within 2 milliseconds of decks detonating later in the blast pattern. 209 individual decks were fired in the blast pattern of which 41 pairs of decks arrived at the observation location less than 2 milliseconds apart when taking into account the s-wave speed and direction. The lesson to be learned when using electronic detonators to limit ground vibrations from complex blasting patterns, is that it is just not good enough to look at the planned firing times, a professional blasting engineer must also understand the likely interaction of the various seismic wave types created and their combined impact on any given monitoring location.

Jan 1, 2024

By Miguel Humpire Huamani, Gustavo Huerta Valer, Jorge C. Cárdenas Miranda

As part of the continuous improvement and increase productivity to achieve the mining and extraction plan of a low-grade open pit copper operation, alternatives are required to expand the blast pattern to maximize drills and steels resources along to ensure the fragmentation results for the process plant with volumes from 500k tons of broken material per day. Therefore, the application of aluminum based ultra-high energy explosives was an alternative to achieve the objective of expanding the production pattern by 34% while maintaining energy factors levels along with the distribution of explosive and the application of the pocket charge in the stemming level, reducing the load factor, maintaining the fragmentation results in P80 and increasing the percentage of fines less than 1.0 in (2.54 cm). An important development to ensure the supply and perform successfully blasthole loading was the implementation of a supply system with pre-blending (aluminized emulsion) which is stored in silos and load through factory trucks. In the field we ensured optimal initial and final density levels with chemical sensitizer to perform the most fracturing work in the rock, complementary evaluations were performed to predict flyrock and define safe equipment evacuation radiuses along with advanced vibration monitoring for the sustainability of the mine.

Feb 6, 2023

By Michael Twomey, Alastair Torrance, Alan Twomey

Low density explosives have been available in various forms for nearly 20 years. These initially consisted of various diluted forms of ANFO formulated to slow the rate of reaction. One such product that was developed was a blend of ammonium nitrate and rubber. This product uses a coarse fuel provided by granulated rubber to slow the reaction rate of the explosive rather than being a diluted form of ANFO. There has always been a technical difficulty in blending two dissimilar materials without subsequent segregation.

Jan 1, 2011

By Rodney Pinksen, Remi Proulx

The IOC Mining and Operations Departments expressed an interest in reducing the amount of oversize material (>1.0 m x 1.0 m x 1.0 m; 39 inches x 39 inches x 39 inches) being produced and its subsequent downstream effects including in-pit sorting and reduction, damage to mobile equipment, and significant delays in the loading pockets and the primary crushers. To achieve this goal an oversize reduction project was undertaken by the mine and to date has significantly improved upon baseline measures.

Jan 1, 2011

By Mark Svinkin

To save time for construction of coal pits, the contractor decided to combine erection of the tower pitheads with digging of skip shafts to the depth necessary for placing proper coal pit equipment. It was obvious that blasts used in shaft faces and lifting machines installed at a lower part of the pithead could excite vibrations of an upper part of the pithead with curing concrete. The contractor was concerned about vibrations of pithead concrete structures and the disturbance of freshly poured concrete in forms at a top of the pithead as a consequence of structure vibrations. The results of a study of the tower pithead structure vibrations from blasting and operating machinery, and effects of structural vibrations on curing concrete are presented. Structural vibrations were measured at the tower pitheads of two coal pits from twelve blasts. Records of horizontal and vertical displacements were superposition of harmonic low-frequency damped vibrations and sporadic high-frequency damped vibrations with a variable frequency. Low frequency vibrations attenuated during 8-13 s after the last delayed blast. Measured values of the natural frequencies of pithead horizontal vibrations coincided with the calculated frequencies of horizontal bend vibrations. An increase of a face depth from 18 to 50 m diminished 16 times horizontal bending vibration displacements of concrete structures. Measurements of vertical structural vibrations from blasting demonstrated increasing of vertical pithead displacements with the rising of structure elevations. This is evidence of the pithead longitudinal tension. The holes with charges were not properly condensed for one blast. As a result of incompact stemming, the blast substantially increased the energy of airborne pressure waves, which triggered natural vertical vibrations of the pithead with high displacements.

Jan 1, 2004

By Kaushik Dey

Bord and pillar is the most predominant method of wining of coal in Indian underground coal mines. Development heading in coal mines often encounters roof stability problem and results in roof overbreak. Research on this reveals that the blast-induced ground vibration may have significant contribution in roof overbreak, especially, when solid blasting is carried out in the bord and pillar method. Solid blasting, in general, is associated with higher charge confinement due to lack of free face and generates higher ground vibration, which in turn results in excess overbreak.

Jan 1, 2008

By Behrouz Ohadi, Kamran Esmaeili, Bibhu Mohanty

In most metalliferrous open pit mines with heterogeneous orebodies, blast-induced rock movement is a crucial outcome that has unfavorable impact on ore and waste segregation in the post-blast muck pile, resulting in either ore loss (the ore is misclassified as waste and sent to the waste rock dump) and/or ore dilution (waste is misclassified as ore and sent to the processing plant). While many studies have been carried out to assess the influence of blast design parameters on blast-induced rock movement, the influence of rock mass characteristics in these studies have been overlooked.

Jan 1, 2018

By Denard Brandt, Isidro Martinez, Greg Baker, Laura Slattery, Teddy French

The Dos Pobres Mine is a copper oxide heap-leach mine located near Safford, Arizona. Mine production is 180,000 tons (163,293 tonnes) per day with a stripping ratio of 2:1. During the startup phase of the mine, the required fragmentation size was easy to achieve as the ore was highly weathered and fractured near the surface. As the mine depth increased, the proper fragmentation size became harder to achieve due to less weathering and different rock types. Because copper recovery increases as crusher product size decreases, achieving the appropriate product size at the crusher is the operating priority.

Jan 1, 2010

By Shazad Hosein, William J. Birch, Robert Farnfield, David Jameson, Catherine E. Johnson

The current and consented quarry workings at a slate quarry in North Wales {UK} intersect old long abandoned underground slate mine workings. The old underground slate mine contains the remains of World War II buildings used to house artworks to protect them from war damage. Over the past 20 years, there have been a number of roof falls in the old underground slate mine, which have damaged the buildings and make general access unsafe. From observation of the timing of these falls, they occurred in the mid 2000’s. The purpose of the exercise was to determine the possible relationship between blast vibrations experienced on the surface and those experienced on the roof of the abandoned mine caverns. Thus preventing the need to regularly monitor in the old mine workings. In order to achieve this, a rigorous geotechnical assessment of the stability of the caverns was undertaken by a fully qualified Geotechnical Engineer. Once it had been determined that it was safe to do so, 3 “MEMs based” blasting seismographs were attached to the roof, in accordance with the instruction of the geotechnical engineer. In addition, 8 “MEMs based” blasting seismographs were deployed at various locations on the surface. The trial blast comprised of 51 blastholes, with charges varying between 46kg [101lbs] and 124kg [273lbs] of bulk emulsion explosive. The blastholes were in 4 rows of holes. The blast was connected using shock tube 25ms, 33ms and 65ms delay period relay detonators. The minimum distances from the blast to the surface and underground monitoring points were 78.1m [256 ft] and 114 m [374 ft] respectively. The results from the three underground monitoring locations in terms of resultant peak particle velocity was 4.42 mm/s [0.174in/s], 3.47 mm/s [0.137in/s], and 4.69 mm/s [0.185in/s]. In line with previous research, it was determined that the underground results [when compared on a “like for like” basis in terms of scaled distance] were lower in amplitude than the surface results. In this case by a factor between 0.47 and 0.87, averaging 0.68.

Jan 21, 2025

By Raj K. Rajamani, Solomon A. Tucker, Michael K. McCarter

"In a study aimed at exploring possible improvements in operating performance at an Open Pit Copper (OPC) mine in the western U.S., the impact of blast energy changes on crushing performance was evaluated. OPC feeds its 3-stage crushing plant in 12-hour-day shifts with skarn ore from three domains: Pit_B (B), Pit_S Low-Grade (SLG) and Pit_S High-Grade (SHG), in the blending ratio 1:1:1 (B/SLG/SHG). Thecrushed product is fed to a 2-stage ball mill circuit. "

Jan 1, 2017

By S B. Richardson, D Mead, N T. Moxon

The use of air-decks to reduce explosive costs has become very topical in recent years. The majority of the research in this area has been arried out between the Soviet Union where reductions in explosive consumption of between 10-30% have been claimed with apparent benefits being gained in both fragmentation and movement. Work carried out by the University of Maryland using thick plexiglass blocks has supported these findings and indicated that air-decks in measetbe duration of action of the shock wave on the surrounding material by a factor of 2 to 5 (see Figure 1). Although the fracture network resulting from this mechanism is not as intense as that produced adjacent to the explosive charge it does appear to act over a larger volume of material. Although the mechanism attributed to air-decking has been studied in some detail the effect of this mechanism on the size distribution of material produced during a blast does not appear tot have attracted much attention.

Jan 1, 1991

By Shadrack Nuamah, Erik Westman, Bright Afum, Jesse Addy

Rock fragmentation is the most critical aspect of hard rock production blasting due to its significant impact on drilling and blasting costs and the economics of subsequent loading, hauling, and crushing operations. This study analyzes current cost trends in the drill and blast operations of an anonymous open pit gold mine and proposes cost-effective drill and blast geometric parameters. The investigation focused on one operational pit with provided design parameters for two shots, shot 1 and shot 2. Existing blast parameters and two additional proposed sets of geometric parameters were evaluated using the Kuz-Ram and Chung and Katsabanis fragmentation models to estimate mean fragment sizes. The results indicated that the proposed blast parameters produced estimated mean fragment sizes within the mine’s desired range (not exceeding 45 cm). Additionally, the explosive energy was utilized efficiently per in-situ material blasted. The proposed parameters increased the estimated total volume of in-situ material fragmented by approximately 14% for both Shot 1 and Shot 2 compared to the current parameters. Furthermore, adopting the proposed blast parameters could lead to significant cost savings. The evaluated total drill and blast cost savings were approximately 11% for Shot 1 and 12% for Shot 2. These savings stem from the increased efficiency and effectiveness of the blast operations, highlighting the potential for substantial economic benefits. This study demonstrates that optimizing blast geometric parameters will allow open-pit mines to achieve desired fragmentation, utilize explosive energy more effectively, and realize considerable cost savings in drill and blast operations.

Jan 21, 2025

By Xue Yongpeng, Zhu Zhenhai, Zhu Ming

The purpose of the Solid Medium Controlled Blasting Technique and Its Applications is to have the inside of the vessel-shaped framework (e.g: oil tank , water pool, gas chamber, chimney, water tower, grain warehouse and etc.) or the one side of the thin wall-shaped structure(e.g: steel bar concrete wall and etc.), both of which are intended to be demolished, inserted with the required solid medium (e.g: soil , sand , coal, salt and etc.) ,in which there is a certain mass density, and then through which the blasting energy is transferred to fulfill the blasting task. For such a technique, it is necessary to bury the explosives into the inserted solid medium and then to start the explosion to blast the intended target into pieces. The filling of the solid medium may be done mechanically or by man. Compared with the water pressure blasting technique, this one has the characteristics of good effect. wide application, simplified construction procedure , safe and reliable operation and small vibration (less vibration than water pressure blasting by 80% to 90%)in particular without any flying stones, thus resulting in better and comprehensive social and economickfficiency.

Jan 1, 2000

By Gustavo Huerta Valer, Jorge Cárdenas Miranda, Johan Salas Flores

One of the challenges of mining is the optimization of the blasting process, which has an important impact downstream in the processing of crushed ore in the plant, that is why mining companies ensure the results of granulometry obtained from the blasting process through a joint work with companies specialized in the process of loading with explosives.

Feb 6, 2023

By Steven Richardson, E A. Cameron, Reza "Ray" Jambakhsh

This paper outlines the design and implementation of a method to use Long hole Carbide drilling to blast an "Upper Blind Slot Raise" in the range of 12m (40 ft).

Jan 1, 1992

By Italo Onederra, Miguel Araos

"Most of the current explosives for mining blasting activities are based on ammonium nitrate (ANFO, emulsions and watergels). AN-based explosives’ detonating properties were discovered in the 50’s and since then they have proven to be reliable, safe and cost effective. However, there is no current alternative raw material to replace AN. As part of a program of research initially funded by the Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP), Mining3 and the University of Queensland engaged in the search for potential oxidizing agent alternatives that could replace AN in the manufacture of mining explosives. Candidates included those that are produced in large quantities and that can be cost competitive with ammonium nitrate. The initial work identified hydrogen peroxide (HP), calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) and sodium nitrate (SN). Explosives mixtures were prepared and sensitized using void sensitization techniques. The detonation properties results showed that explosives based onmixtures of HP/CN and HP/SN as the oxidizer were able to detonate in a range of 2000 – 5000 m/s, indiameters 50 and 102 mm, and densities in the range of 0.50 – 1.40 g/ml. Although more studies need to be conducted to fully understand these explosives, if successful, these explosives would be able to offer an alternative to the AN-based explosives in the mining industry."

Jan 1, 2017

By Benoît Pinier, Jason Furtney, Gustavo Sampaio Lopes, Jorge Valencia, Johan Hawinkel

This paper describes a numerical modeling study on the effect of airdecking on vibrations, fragmentation, and movement in mining-related rock blasting. Practice has shown that air gaps reduce blast vibrations and damage while maintaining the required fragmentation and movement, yielding similar blast outcomes with less explosive mass per hole. Given that the premise of “replacing explosives with air” for better blast results is counterintuitive, this paper aims to shed light on the physical mechanisms and processes occurring in a blast with airdecks. It is hypothesized that airdecks are effective and beneficial because they load the rock at pressures lower than what is required to crush the rock. In the airdeck, the explosive gasses directly fracture rock and avoid energy loss due to crushing. In essence, the airgap allows similar outcomes in fragmentation and throw with less total explosive product, as the lower pressure gasses in the airdeck are still effective at breaking and moving the rock. This is distinct from only having less explosive and more stemming, as the stemming reduces the pressure more than an airdeck at the same position. This study uses the blastFoam software (for modeling of single and multiphase flows) to accurately calculate the pressure history throughout a blasthole and air gap. The pressure and gas loading are coupled to numerical models of vibration, fragmentation, and blast movement. Using this modeling technique, a suite of blast scenarios for typical configurations in a range of commodities is assessed with and without airdecks. Rock blasting practitioners have a responsibility to protect communities, infrastructure, and heritage — demystifying airdecks through a better understanding of the physics provides another tool in the blasting engineering toolkit to serve this goal.

Jan 21, 2025