EXPLOSIVES AND BLASTING
high explosives manufacture, as well as packaged emulsion manufacture and latterly of bulk emulsions and down-the-hole services. Hanwha is supplying mining explosives services and distributing mining explosive products in Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Chile and Central America to date and plans to start operating in the US this year. The Head of Hanwha Mining Services, Patrick Kennedy told IM:“ we are gearing offers to meeting customer’ s needs, particularly in light of the tough commodity conditions, which are flexible and fit for conditions.”
Hanwha offers a broad range of bulk explosives, but in particular, Kennedy says its low-density range is creating quite a lot of customer interest and success where it is being used. Kennedy states:“ Broadly speaking if a mine could use low cost ANFO, it would. The introduction of water in the hole adds substantial cost in generic high density emulsion based products. Our hybrid range provides water proof explosives at densities towards ideal ANFO whilst not compromising on effective energy. This is compelling in total cost management for our customers. These low-density products can be loaded below the density typically deployed by other players. The industry is becoming far more aware of cost per hole, not just cost per tonne, hence truly evaluating the real total cost. Our bulk range is a market leader on this key metric.”
The low-density products offer customers the ability to achieve the desired outcomes using less explosives.“ We have simple calculators for our customers to use in any evaluation which clearly demonstrates this point of difference. These products also remove the variability of chemical gassing and enable stemming and decking directly after loaded with no wait times.”
Also, these products have an inherent stability, which leads to excellent fume control. In addition, Hanwha does not operate large-scale ammonium nitrate plants and therefore is unconstrained when offering customers products which are less reliant on porous ammonium nitrate prills.
Kennedy adds:“ Technology is still very important to customers, but they do not want to pay for excessive R & D programs, nor should they. I think technology is better in the blasthole and not sitting in a laboratory. Also running businesses with lean structures in line with our customers is something that we think is important. Nobody can afford to carry unnecessary overheads and it certainly quickens customers responses and discussion making.”
BME technology response to energy prices
Rocketing electricity prices are leading many mines to look at ways of reducing the energy consumed by loading, crushing and milling equipment – through better blasting techniques that deliver finer fragmentation.
“ A 300 % increase in the price paid by mines for electricity since 2008 now means that some 20 % of a South African gold mine’ s costs are accounted for by electricity,” according to Joe Keenan, Managing Director of explosives supplier, BME.“ In turn, global studies
Tony Rorke, BME Technical Director
Hanwha says its lowdensity range is creating quite a lot of customer interest and success where it is being used
estimate that about 45 % of electricity on hard rock mines is consumed by crushing and milling equipment.”
Keenan said that conserving energy in the loading, crushing and milling stages of production has therefore become imperative, and one of the most effective ways of doing this was to improve blasting efficiency.
“ In recent years, a number of mines have seen the benefit of increasing plant productivity by increasing powder factors and applying blasting products such as accurate electronic delay detonators in their blasting,” he said.“ The traditional approach of trying to cut costs by reducing powder factors in blasting is giving way; in its place is the concept of blast result targets such as fragmentation outcome.”
According to Keenan, one of the problems facing mine management is that drill and blast costs are easily measured while the increased downstream energy costs caused by poor blasting results are much more difficult to quantify.
“ So it is unsurprising that there tends to be greater focus on reducing drill and blast costs without realising the negative impact this has on other processes,” he said.
It is now well recognised that modern blasting techniques can reduce losses caused by ore dilution and poor liberation of minerals in the plant processes – helping to increase mine profitability and reduce overall mining costs.
Tony Rorke, Technical Director of BME, said there are definite energy-saving goals that these techniques can help achieve, including lower energy consumption by crushers, grinders and excavators – alongside benefits like improved mineral liberation, maximised digging rates, and increased bucket payload.
BME says it has also been a pioneer in the field of electronic detonation, developing the AXXIS digital initiation system – which has become an industry standard and which was recently released in an updated GII version. Using the AXXIS system, electronic detonators can be programmed for ignition within
60 International Mining | AUGUST 2016