EXPLOSIVES AND DELIVERY
and Charmecs( explosive charging equipment) are available. They are equipped with one or two man lifting booms( up to 1 t lifting capacity), extendable and rotating installation baskets, special charging baskets and large arch lifter applications. Products are made available for different market areas with either Tier 3A or Tier 4F engine technologies.
Normet has also made a lot of developments in bulk emulsion charging technology. Normet’ s ECM( Emulsion Charging Module) technology is state-of-the-art. It can even be used for string charging for contour blasting with an accuracy of ± 5 % of the charge’ s nominal weight. Normet has also focused on developing long-hole production charging up to 40 m long holes.
Emulsion pumping, gassing, and hose pusher technology are working together seamlessly with the NorSmart Canbus control system. NorSmart is the in-house developed Canbus control for all new Normet products. As it is developed in-house the control program can be adjusted to different customer needs quickly and efficiently. Normet says its NorSmart Canbus control system“ is operator friendly and technically robust. The process calibration and diagnostics are easy to use and logical.”
Normet has also advanced ANFO charging. The focus has been in the Chinese mining market where many different ANFO types and mixes are used. The types and mixes are even mine specific. Standard prilled ANFO with 6 % of fuel oil is pretty easy to load and will not need any special technologies. In China, special ANFO types like powder-ANFO, heavy-ANFO and sticky- ANFO are used. Normet has been leading the development of charging these special ANFOs for almost 10 years. Development charging, production charging with hose pusher technologies and ANFO tank fill systems are used successfully. Mechanisation and dedicated person lifters with safety roofs have made remarkable safety improvements compared to the old ways of charging from an LHD bucket or by standing on ladders.
IoT is today’ s hot word. Naturally, Normet is working in this field. For example, the emulsion charger creates round-based reports including, among other information, hole specific data, charged total kilograms and process critical data. Wireless data transfers and the cloud servicebased Normet web dashboard convert data to a visually efficient output. The web dashboard is a client customisable service to show graphically all desired process data.
Development projects are ongoing for further mechanised and automated explosives charging progress. Explosive charging is the last development and mining process where people still work in front of unsupported rock face.
IVP’ s Autonomous Pumping Module( APM) is a solution for small and medium size blasting operations where using MMUs is too costly or inefficient. This very compact unit is designed for pumping straight emulsion at minimum discharge rates of 150 kg / min. Powered by its own diesel engine this module can be installed on any flatbed vehicle or available trailer. It can be easily dismantled and stored when necessary. The module has water and gassing liquid tanks and can be attached to almost any source of emulsion: delivery truck, ISO tank, IBC or other type of container. This feature minimises the shut down time for re-filling and accelerates charging operations. An electronic control system guarantees safe production and flexibility of operational parameters, enabling quick and easy changes to the mixed ingredients and discharge rate
Blast management iRing has released its new scenario-based costing module, which enables mine planning engineers to more accurately cost out an entire blast, from the products used to the associated drilling costs. The new module is an extension of iRing’ s award-winning Aegis Analyzer toolset, which organises mining costs into spreadsheetstyle cost models.
Through the costing module, users can now set up models to perform cost comparisons between products that affect the operations
Hexagon Mining Sigma differently. For example, comparing a current explosive type to a new, more energetic explosive will allow a mine to enlarge blasting patterns. Users can also change a drilling pattern in Aegis and apply the appropriate cost model to effectively compare the cost differences between different explosive products. Other uses include comparing different drill types, drill patterns and mining methods. Unlike traditional costing approaches where costs are fixed to one item, Aegis allows users to create multiple models, linking different cost rules to identical products. The revolutionary toolset can track costs over time, compare against historical costs, and set up cost rules per hole, per ring, per stope or per length drilled basis.
“ We are excited to announce the introduction of our new costing module, which will help drill blast engineers better estimate and track costs across an entire mine,” said Troy Williams, Mining Engineer and Lead Software Developer.“ iRing’ s Aegis Analyzer helped to fill a muchneeded hole in the mining industry by giving blast planners access to powerful analysis tools to make well-informed choices regarding their ring designs. Through the ground-breaking costing model, planners can now take it one step further by organising mining costs across different scenarios and easily adapt to mine planning changes as needed.”
The scenario-based costing module is integrated into Aegis’ reporting infrastructure as an extensive series of flexible tables that can be incorporated into sophisticated reports capturing all aspects of the cost model.
56 International Mining | AUGUST 2017