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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 R. Jacob Cefalo, Miguel Valenzuela

The modern drill and blast engineer operates in an environment often rich with data from drilling data and blast designs vs. actuals to fragmentation distributions and vibration records. Despite this abundance, much of the information generated remains underutilized, often collected as a matter of routine rather than for a means to an end. This paper explores how artificial intelligence (AI) can bridge that gap, transforming raw operational information into actionable insights that lead to more consistent and optimized blasting outcomes. Through AI-driven analysis of drilling logs, burden and spacing measurements in design vs. actual, fragmentation distributions, and vibration records, we can identify hidden patterns and correlations that traditional analytics overlook or that we may not be aware of. These insights enable engineers to proactively adjust designs and loading strategies, ultimately improving performance aspects such as improving fragmentation, minimizing ground vibration, and lowering overall operational costs. The paper examines the industry's reliance on lagging indicators, such as post-blast fragmentation surveys or actual powder factors, and suggests the need to shift toward leading indicators like real-time drill data monitoring and predictive fragmentation modeling. Utilizing AI to forecast outcomes before a blast is carried out allows engineers to take corrective actions early in the process, thereby creating a feedback loop that continuously improves performance. This integration of AI into drilling and blasting practices marks a pivotal opportunity for the explosives engineering field to evolve from reactive to predictive methodologies unlocking a new level of operational intelligence and value creation.

Jan 26, 2026

By Carlos Enrique Arroyo Ortiz, Jadir Pedro Alves

This paper presents some of the results obtained during the research work about the use of technologies and digital transformation in the process of rock drilling in open pit mines. The use of automation presents itself as a disruptive factor and a driver of improvements that provide sustainability in rock drilling. Seven main operational parameters were utilized to combine measurement while the drilling (MWD) with other information generated by the equipment during hole drilling, in six different lithologies in an iron mine, located in the central region of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Adjustments and corrections were made to the data collected in order to minimize external influences other than the rock itself, to ensure the effectiveness of the analyses. Finally, we sought to compare the performance of the drilling process in manual and automatic operation modes. Thus, making it possible to show the efficiency and impact on the sustainability of rock drilling operations in open pit mines.

Feb 6, 2023

By John Hutchings

Drilling and blasting is a clearly delineated work process, which has well defined inputs and outputs. Drilling and blasting is also a process with a number of steps each of which has measurable outcomes. Drilling and blasting is ideally suited to the application of Total Quality Management principles. Most drilling and blasting information is generally poorly managed with disjointed and unrelated Information Technology systems managing parts drilling and blasting data. Data is often moved from on system to another, sometimes manually. In the field, drilling and blasting is still very much a paper based system and which has not generally benefited from some of the recent hardware and software technology advancements now “on the shelf”. Data collected on paper rarely is transcribed back into an electronic system for further analysis. It is often difficult to collate or review historic drilling and blasting data. This paper will present a definition of Total Quality Management and demonstrate how it can be applied to the drilling and blasting work process. Total Quality Management defines the mechanisms for the application of continuous improvement to drilling and blasting. Continuous improvement will provide opportunities to modify drilling and blasting work process outcomes and generate real cost benefits within the overall mining process. A complete drilling and blasting management system frame work, called DBS, is presented in this paper. DBS provides all the components necessary to implement a full drilling and blasting Total Quality Management solution. Also highlighted will be appropriate “off the shelf” technology that can be applied to replace current paper based systems and provide the means to connect with other mine data systems. Various examples will be discussed which will demonstrate potential benefits of applying a structured Total Quality Management approach to a drilling and blasting work process.

Jan 1, 2004

By Mohammed Alkazimi, Katie Grantham

The purpose of this paper is to quantify the risk to both the environment and surrounding infrastructure from a pipe sealing implosion. Both accuracy and the precision in determining how a submerged infrastructure damaged by underwater explosions performs provide better decision-making capabilities for managers facing impending oil spills. This determination is vital, especially for both emergency and crisis management teams, as categorized consequences based on both the nature of the structural layout and the surrounding marine environment assist in identifying whether or not the utilization of this technique is applicable. Thus, the decision maker’s aim, in a crisis, is to minimize any associated risk that might result in aggravating the situation by endangering both the infrastructure and marine life. Therefore, the resulting risk matrices will enable technical personnel who are not experts in explosive technologies to be armed with the information necessary to determine if this mitigation technique is applicable to their situation.

Jan 1, 2013

By Randall Head

The drilling at the Taum Sauk Reservoir was a unique compilation of the latest technology and everyday common sense. This site is comprised of rhyolite, which is 30 times harder than limestone in comparison. Using some of the most state of the art drills, coupled with GPS guidance, angular drilling systems, and an ordinary piece of string, some of the most amazing drilling feats were accomplished. By constructing the new dam on top of a mountain that had been blasted once before nearly 50 years ago treacherous conditions for the drills and crew were a challenge. The drills had to be flown in by cranes to get to their locations, where they then drilled anywhere from 2.5 to 6 inch (6.4 to 15.2 cm) holes at angles up to 24.4 degrees. Custom drill bits were designed by the drilling crew to tackle feats such as drilling holes up to 120 feet (36.6 m) deep. A main challenge was the shape of the reservoir, as it is not in a straight line, but rather round, so no technological way was readily available to use to drill. Common sense came in and an ordinary piece of string was used to aide in drilling the hole. A revolutionary step was that our drill was used to core our own samples. By using our own equipment, we were able to complete this task for one-third of the cost of having a third party contractor obtain the core samples. On this unmatched jobsite, it has been established that technology has come a long way, but when all else fails, a piece of string will do just fine.

Jan 1, 2010

By Paul Klaric, Nicholas Bodley

Every blasting engineer or professional can attest to the age-old conundrum of obtaining accurate hole information on a large scale prior to loading explosive charges in a blast hole. Even though the benefits of QA/QC are well known and documented and are becoming increasingly important when digitizing and automating mining operations, the QA/QC process itself has not changed significantly over generations. The current methods where operators deploy measuring tapes of variable standards recording their subjective assessment of hole length on a paper blast map or manually transcribing to a tablet, are unreliable and non-auditable. Additionally, the process in its current form is time intensive, obtaining only moderate results and benefits, making it difficult or impossible to resource in today’s tight labour markets. Often only two data points, depth, and water presence, are captured when visiting the hole resulting in a high cost per bit of data. For these reasons, the process is seldom done on a large scale, let alone integrated. The QA/QC process in its current shape is a gap that will need to be addressed if autonomous blasting and mining is to become a reality.

Feb 6, 2023

By Patrick Cahill, Jacob Miller, Nolan Mundwiller, Catherine Johnson

"The Experimental Mine at the Missouri University of Science and Technology is undergoing major developments. The underground workings are being expanded to include a ramp down to a second level which will comprise of larger opening and room sizes to better simulate modern mine layouts. Thisexpansion will enable the Experimental Mine to be utilized for many more generations. In addition, the new 15,000 sq. ft. Kennedy Mine Building is being constructed and will house the mine office,classrooms, and three laboratories to accommodate the mining and explosives engineering programs’ ever-increasing enrollment. With these new developments come an increasing need for safety and awareness in regards to explosives and blasting. This paper will utilize the Institute of ExplosivesMakers Safety Analysis of Risk (IMESAFR) software tool, to assess current magazine compliance withthe increased personnel limits and mine building location. Furthermore, this paper will assess theimplementation of a wireless blast warning system consisting of warning beacons and a centrally located siren which will be integrated with the construction of the Kennedy Mine Building. This warning system will provide the necessary precautions to safely conduct blasting-related experiential learningopportunities and research projects, and will enable facility staff to more efficiently oversee blastingoperations at the Experimental Mine. "

Jan 1, 2017

By O Omidi

Selection of delay times to optimize fragmentation has been a controversial topic among researchers and blasting practitioners. This paper reviews previous experimental information and presents the results of new tests conducted in small blocks constructed using a commercial grout. The effect of the delay on the average fragment size, coarse fragmentation and uniformity of fragmentation is discussed. Fragmentation was coarser at extremely short or extremely long delays, while a fairly constant average size was obtained at a variety of intermediate delays. Uniformity, defined as the slope of the fragmentation distribution through the average fragment size, was poor at short and very long delays and relatively constant at the intermediate delays. Some tests attempted to minimize the effect of gas penetration by lining the boreholes with copper tubes. When this was the case average fragmentation changed marginally, while uniformity was significantly affected by delay and was typically smaller than in the unlined tests.

Jan 1, 2014

By P. Ravanal, J. Blazquez, F. Ortega, P. Couceiro, J. Navarro

Massive blasting technique is an interesting alternative to optimize mining’s performance by enhancing digging rates and overall operation’s activities, especially when a reduced operational bench width is available. The exploitation of a huge bench through multiple blasts would mean a potential reduction in productivity and higher operational difficulties. In such hard circumstances, combined with complex geotechnical conditions, a full ground vibration analysis for near and far field vibrations are required in order to safely design and conduct the blast. In this paper, a comprehensive case study will be discussed to show how the application of massive blasting techniques was safely implemented in very complex geotechnical conditions. The proposed solution was based on performing a full ground vibration study to optimize blast design parameters, such as charging and timing, in order to fire the complete bench blast in a single shooting event, without compromising the slope stability. Thus, a massive blast with an approximate tonnage of 6.0Mt was successfully designed and blasted, attending all safety and stability criteria defined by the geotechnical and drilling and blasting departments of Minera Escondida.

Jan 1, 2024

By Valeri Mitkov

Studena Quarry is one of the main suppliers of inert materials for concretes production in Sofia. It is characterized by massif heterogeneity in density and fissuration. Failure to take into consideration this fact during the planning of the blasting works recently had unsatisfying results in their carrying out – obtaining of materials with too small dimensions or high percentage of outsize material. Series of test blasting were carried out to find the relations for calculation of the main parameters of the drilling and blasting works. The blasting network was enlarged to 6 x 6 m, the diameter of the shot-boreholes was changed from 110 to 152 mm, the stem of the boreholes was significantly reduced and the relative consumption of blasting agents as a whole was reduced to 0,37 ?g/m3.

Jan 1, 2010

By M. Khaled, K. Abdel Rahman, M. Khattab

Helwan limestone quarry is located at a distance of 35 km (21.7 miles) to the south of Cairo downtown. Drilling and blasting operations are used to extract the limestone for the Helwan Cement Company (HCC). In 1980’s a new urban community was constructed adjacent to the quarry. This situation led to shifting of the old quarry 5.0 km (3.1 miles) to its current location, to avoid causing blasting problems to the new community. Unfortunately, the new quarry is opened in a highly faulted area, with weak zones of brittle materials. The drilling and blasting crew is facing many difficulties due to the geological complexity along these zones. Moreover, the extension of this community towards the new quarry makes the control of ground vibrations is very important.

Jan 1, 2008

By Wendell W. Harris, Stanley J. Vitton

In the United States each year it has been estimated that expansive soils cause approximately $9.0 billion in damage to buildings, roads, airports, and other facilities. This figure alone exceeds the damage estimate for earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes combined. Unfortunately, some cases of expansive soil damage (swelling) are blamed on rock blasting operations if the blasting operations are located within the immediate area. While simple tests, such as the Atterberg limits test, can characterize a soil as expansive, it does not necessarily answer the question whether the foundation soils are causing distresses to a structure. In particular, it appears that once a soil has been labeled as nonexpansive it is no longer considered as a problem soil, in which case blast vibrations become the prime suspect.

Jan 1, 1996

By Ron J. Elliott, David G. Otto

This project involved deep blast densification of recent volcanic avalanche debris deposits consisting of a 43 meter thickness of loose clean to slightly silty sand, gravel, cobbles and boulders deposited as a result of the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens, Washington, U.S.A. This project was carried out to enhance the resistance to liquefaction or dynamic settlement of soil deposits under the bridge abutments for construction of the 59.4 meter long South Coldwater Creek Bridge. As this bridge is located close to the Mt. St. Helens fault, it will in all likelihood be subject to earthquakes in the order of 6.5 with expected accelerations of 0.55g. Without soil densification, the bridge would suffer severe structural damage in the event of a significant earthquake.

Jan 1, 1994

By Sanjay Sengar, Nabiullah Pingua, Saurabh Sahay

In India, more than 80 percent of the total of 557 million metric ton coal production comes from open-cast mines involving large overburden removal with average 1:3.5 stripping ratio which is going to in-crease in future. This operation consumes nearly 0.5 million metric ton explosives consisting of 80-85 percent bulk explosives and remaining 15 to 20 percent non-permitted large diameter explosives. Quali-ties of bulk explosives play an important role in rock blasting. Post blast results like poor fragmentation, tight mucking, toe problems, improper muck profile and lower productivity of mine may require chang-es in explosive loading factor (amount of explosive used per unit of rock blasted ). The explosive load-ing factor is an extremely important index to assess the economy of blasting operation.

Jan 1, 2014

By Ulrich Leiste, David M. Fox

This paper presents the results from small scale testing aimed at measuring the loads on a rigid target due to the detonation of a buried mine. The aim of this research is to find how the impulse delivered to the target varies as the air filled void volume fraction within the soil changes.

Jan 1, 2013

By Jorge Cárdenas, Luis Huaroc, Máximo Cari, Nestor Delgado

In Peru, after four years of pandemic, some mining companies have chosen to install integrated operating centers in central offices where through network technology and video surveillance it allows them to carry out their activities remotely, this has become a disruptive strategy to promote a safer and smarter mining industry. Our fundamental value is to improve the quality of life, safety and well being of our collaborators, that is why we have created the remote blasting engineering control center " Core" that allows us to humanize mining. Core is an integration of experience, security, technology, quality of life and artificial intelligence; it has media technology connected directly to the mining operation, specialist engineers and technical assistants in team they seek to create optimal proposals of drilling and blasting designs remotely that generate added value to customers. In the planning process the team suggests drilling meshes, in the loading process there are optimized, digitized designs and efficiency in the factory trucks finally in the safety process allows us to identify inadequate pipes within the blasting project, deviation of procedures, remote inspections, identify operating conditions to prevent future risks that may arise in the blasting process. The remote communication systems allow you to monitor mining operations remotely to identify and alert any operational or security deviation that was not identified by the personnel present in the operation, as well as to store images in case investigations are required. The results obtained have allowed us to reduce the exposure of personnel to any risk of the mining operation, to optimize times in the activities of our engineers who are in the mining operations since there is the permanent support of centralized specialists to face every challenge that arises in the operation, for the engineers who are in the offices of Core can be very close to the family and do not lose it, and for our customers it is to meet their needs with engineers specialists in the drilling and blasting process, as well as in safety to be able to proactively cope with any deviation that arises.

Jan 21, 2025

By R L. Keller

Hong Kong has some of the most restrictive practices regarding blasting than any place in the world. Regulations regarding vibration limitations are 1 in/sec for structures and 0.5 in/sec (or even less) for most utilities; with no recognition of frequency response or adjustment. The Hong Kong Geotechnical Engineering Office has one of the most conservative approaches and protective guidelines for pre-blast assessment of slopes subjected to blast vibration (SEE paper '96). The protective measures to control flyrock generally required by the Mines Division are additionally very stringent. It is not uncommon for the costs associated with protective measures or methods which must be employed to exceed the cost of the drilling and blasting itself - or to waiver blasting application unfeasible altogether. From these restrictions it can easily be imagined how blasting in this urban environment would be most challenging.

Jan 1, 1997

By Paul Worsey, Gerald Rupert, Mark Kirkbride

The realignment of Highway H in the proximity of Crystal Cave (Springfield MO.) required the development of a blasting program that was both economical and efficient for construction, yet ecologically safe for the cave. Three component seismographs were strategically placed underground near prominent and sensitive cave features and the vibration levels from the construction blasting continuously monitored. Peak particle velocity (PPV) values were found to obey the square root scaling law and a peak particle velocity value of 0.3 in/sec was chosen as the safe maximum limit. This value proved adequate in preserving the integrity of the cave and its features. Scaled distances for the maximum and lower values enabled blasting personnel to select explosive charge weights per delay for given distance to the cave. Delays were determined from the dominant frequencies recorded underground.

Jan 1, 1997

By Feng Shuyu Yang Nianhua

According to the results of high speed photography tests, particle velocity measurement tests and the digital calculation with TP2 software, the shape of shock wave, the declined laws of the shock wave propagation speed and the peak particle velocity are described and analyzed in detail. New viewpoints about the theories of blasting fragmentation based on analysis of the progressive pictures of the fracture region are given. The formula for calculating the depth of fracture regions is established on the basis of the new viewpoints.

Jan 1, 1997