IM 2019 August 19 | Page 36

EXPLOSIVES & BLASTING
Braden Lusk, Vice President of DynoConsult, a
part of Dyno Nobel, says the development of
products to improve processing costs and energy
use downstream of blasting is a major industry
thrust right now.
“We are aware that nearly every company is
trying to position themselves to offer the most
efficient blasting products, supplies, and services
to accomplish optimised blasting,” he told IM.
But, this mine-to-mill study and practice is
nothing new, according to Lusk. “A quick look in
the literature will uncover decades of work
focusing on this topic exactly. The real focus in
the modern context is being able to optimise
blasting parameters and product selection in real
time with large amounts of data input.”
Dyno Nobel is working on platforms,
dashboards, and analytics to achieve
optimisation as blasting commences, he said.
“Our bulk technology allows us to customise
loading down to very specific detail based on
incoming data from smart drills, core drill
information, or operational knowledge,” Lusk
said.
The company has major open-pit customers
that have experienced very large cost savings in
energy consumption from processing on top of a
reduction in drill and blast costs over the past
few years, according to Lusk. “In some cases, the
savings add up to multiple millions of dollars.”
Measurement technologies, aimed at
replacing today’s manual processes and
improving future drill and blast outcomes, also
have a part to play in this wide-ranging focus,
according to Orica.
For example, the company has recently
released its latest version of binocular image
capture system, FRAGTrack™. This technology
captures 2D and 3D blast fragmentation imagery
and data, while automatically analysing said
data.
FRAGTrack is designed to improve productivity
and optimise drill and blast through the
integration of fragmentation data into the drill
and blast planning and design processes. Using
this data, blast designs can be optimised to
ensure fragmentation meets the necessary sizing
requirements for reduced processing costs
through fewer crusher blockages, reduced
energy usage, enhanced diggability and haulage,
and increased plant throughput delivering
significant value.
This can have a positive knock-on effect to the
excavation, load and haul and processing stages
of the mining operation, according to Orica.
Orica’s ORETrack™, meanwhile, traces rock
material from a blast right through to the plant.
The small RFID tags are set into boreholes prior
to blasting and track the resulting ore through to
the processing plant, enabling full transparency
of the effect the blasting process has on the ore.
Going wireless & robotic
Orica’s WebGen™ wireless initiation technology
is a major part of the company’s automation
push, according to Adam Mooney, Vice President
– EBS, Wireless & Automation.
The first “truly wireless initiation system”,
Mooney labels WebGen as a “game-changer of
modern blasting” and a critical first step in fully
automating the drill and blast process.
He continued: “It improves safety by removing
people from harm’s way, enhances productivity
by removing the constraints imposed by wired
connections and is fundamentally changing the
way blasting and mining is approached by
enabling new blasting practices.”
The system provides for groups of in-hole
primers to be wirelessly initiated by a firing
command that communicates through rock,
water and air, according to Orica. This removes
constraints often imposed by the requirement of
a physical connection to each primer in a blast
and unlocks safety and productivity benefits for
customers by eliminating the need for down-
wires and surface connecting wires.
The introduction of WebGen has, to date,
facilitated seven new techniques for executing
mining operations, according to Orica.
This includes the temporary rib pillar (TRP)
method, currently used by Newmont Goldcorp’s
Musselwhite operation in Canada. The use of TRP
has helped increase ore recovery through a 34%
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