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By Don W. Lake

Of all the blast monitor& instrumentation systems and techniques av&able today, highspeed photography and videography remain as the most valuable, stand alone, diagnostic techniques to evaluate full scale blasts in the mining and explosives industries. Highspeed image data, coupled with information from other instrumentation systems, such as continuous VOD records, seismographs, laser surveying systems, refraction seismographs, etc. can eIiminate many assumptions about what actually took place in a blast. Thus, diagnostic confidence in evaluating both good and bad blasts is increased, and optimum blast designs are achieved considerably faster when compared to the trial and error approach or relying on just the experience factor.

Jan 1, 1992

By Shazad Hosein, William Birch, Douglas A. Anderson

This paper will present the results of tests of a new method for assessing explosive performance using wavelet transform analysis of standard blast seismograms. The theoretical background of the method was presented at an earlier ISEE conference.

Jan 1, 2015

By Jarrod Bonsmann

"This paper presents the results of small scale testing to examine the effect of various importantparameters on the response of a vehicle due to the detonation of an explosive charge buried inthe soil below the vehicle. In particular, we were interested in examining what effect change instandoff distance, change in mass, and change in surface area would have on the loading applied.We examined the impulse delivered to the target in all cases and for the change in mass andchange in stand-off distance we examined impulse, kinetic energy, and acceleration."

Jan 1, 2012

By W. J. Birch, D. Leckenby, R. Farnfield

The use of electronic detonators to improve fragmentation is becoming universally accepted. However their use in limiting peak particle vibrations levels is still in its infancy. Most of which is anecdotal, in that few actual scientific studies have been carried and published. This paper details the research work carried out at a limestone quarry in the County of North Yorkshire in Northern England. Here a series of blasts were carried out some used non-electric detonators whilst others used electronic detonators. The majority of blasts were carried out at the same burden, spacing and deck charge weight loadings. Initially, the key variable was the difference in detonator type and then leading on to using the electronic detonators at specific exact different detonator timing intervals. Later the study was extended to include double row as well as single row blasts.

Jan 1, 2007

By Robert Hivick, Frank Sames

The control of environmental effects, especially blast vibration and airblast, has become a dominating planning criterion for most surface blasting operations. Compliance with existing regulations is generally achieved through constraints in the blast design, or monitoring programs. Commonly, blast vibration and airblast signals are rated and compared by their maximum amplitude and the associated principal frequency. However, this data reduction limits the interpretation of the influence of varying blast design parameters on the vibration and airblast.

Jan 1, 1999

By Ron J. Elliott, Dylan Wedgewood

A series of five signature holes were blasted at the Highvale Mine and the resultant seismic data was analyzed to make recommendations on how best to address neighbour complaints regarding blast vibrations. From an analysis of peak vibration levels measured at the closest neighbour for blasting during 2016, it was determined that the blast vibration intensity varied between 1.4 to 4.3 mm/sec (0.06-0.17 ins./sec.), well below the level of concern for the onset of minor damage to residential structures, however, the frequency of the blast vibrations was between 2.2 and 9.7 Hz, which is within the range of the natural resonant frequency for a single story home. This was determined to be the cause of the neighbour complaints, as the home would be responding to the blast vibrations.

Jan 1, 2018

By Roberto Golchi

This article describes the method used to quantify the Environmental Impact for the mining, by drilling and blasting, of a borrow pit for a gravity-dam. The affected environment was broken down into a number of components, such as public health and safety, social relationship, air and water quality, flora and fauna. The effect of the various impacting factors from the mining activities, both directly and indirectly, was then calculated for each environmental component. To do this, each impacting factor was first given a magnitude, a number based solely on the range of scenarios possible for the impacting factor. A matrix of weighting factors was then derived to systematically quantify, and normalise, the effects of each impacting factor on each environmental component. The overall impact upon each individual environmental component was then calculated by summing the weighted magnitudes for all the impacting factors.

Jan 1, 2003

By E. McCullough, D. Preece, M. Ortel

Geophysical explosive charges are used in mineral resource exploration. They are detonated subsurface and radiate sonic waves into ground monitors, which detect the vibration waves and their interaction with underlying geologic strata. Geophysicists perform computer analyses of the waves reflected from the strata to determine their depth and thickness (Strobel, Berger & Schaefer, 2012). The purpose of this research is to determine how the detonating explosive charge interacts with the adjacent ground and how the induced waves propagate through the surrounding medium. Furthermore, it is necessary to optimize the location of the initiation point within the charge. Establishing both the direction and intensity of the waves will allow geoscientists to refine and optimize geophysical studies that employ explosive charges.

Jan 1, 2013

By Josee Boudreau

Transport Canada has regulatory requirements that pertain to the transportation of explosives. An important component includes the requirement for an approved Emergency Response Assistance Plan (ERAP). The ERAP may be traced to the recommendations made by Justice Grange following the enquiry into the Mississauga train derailment of December 1979. Justice Grange recommended that any shipper of dangerous goods must have a plan to control any release of dangerous goods in the event of an accident, and that the plan must be submitted to the Minister and approved by the Minister or by an organisation or person designated by the Minister. The right to ship could be withdrawn at any time if the plan is found inadequate either in its conception or in its operation.

Jan 1, 2010

By Charlie Brumbaugh

Antarctica with its diverse conditions such as severe cold, high winds, rock and ice structure and limited explosives available posed many obstacles. This paper will give an overall view of the methods used to overcome these obstacles on a daily basis on the highest, driest, coldest continent on earth.

Jan 1, 2000

By He Guangyi

Combining living examples, the paper introduces the controlled chamber standing shot of more than 3000t explosives initiated at one time with Nonel under complicated circumstances and the experience obtained to keep environment safe and favour mechanical rock cleaning.

Jan 1, 1998

By Douglas Bartley, Jay Elkin

The state of Pennsylvania was at one time one of the leading coal producing states in the east. However, legislation and industry trends over the last 10 years have adversely affected the amount of bituminous coal mined in Pennsylvania and the whole eastern United States. The application for and approval of a new mining permit is a very costly and arduous task. When a new mining operation is established it is crucial that nothing within the operator’s control causes the operation to stop producing. This paper discusses the action taken by a small mine in Pennsylvania when their blast induced vibrations rose to levels that typically would have resulted in a total mine shut down by the regulatory body governing such operations.

Jan 1, 2003

By Xing Zhao, Michael A. Sutton, Vikrant Tiwari, Damien Bretall, Xiaomin Deng, William L. Fourney, Uli Leiste

The dynamic response of a thin aluminum plate subjected to both shallow and deeper buried blast loading was studied. Using a combination of high speed stereo-vision and three dimensional digital image correlation (3D-DIC), sequential stereo images acquired every 38.25µs during blast loading were analyzed to determine full-field deformations and plate motions (displacements, velocities and accelerations, effective surface strain and effective surface strain rate). Measurements indicate that the initial sheet deformation was highly localized for both shallow and deeper blast events, with extremely high velocity and acceleration values recorded during the earliest stages of impact loading. Full field strain and strain rate data indicate that well defined strain and strain rate “maxima” are created in the plate, with the potential of affecting the dynamic plate behavior as well as it local failure.

Jan 1, 2010

By Michael D. McGill, Jeff Freadrich

There are many factors which affect the productivity of a front end loader. One of the most obvious is the characteristics of the material being mined. Characteristics such as size distribution, swell factor or heave, and material hardness / abrasiveness will all effect the efficiency of the mucking cycle. The focus of this paper is to look specifically at the size distribution of blasted material, and quantify the effects on loader productivity.

Jan 1, 1994

By Pierre L. Labelle

Non electric Dual Delay initiators have revolutionized many aspects of underground mining. The units are used in all types of underground blasting operations. Some operations, due to the complexity and variety of their blasts, have extremely large inventories of conventional non electric products. The Dual Delay system has drastically reduced these inventories and has added an important element of versatility to blast designs.

Jan 1, 1994

By R. Ticona, J. Alarcon

In the continuous search to provide comprehensive solutions and identify opportunities to improve ore traceability, from the blastholes to mill feed, different ore traceability systems have been developed, which allow tracking the ore and associating its geometallurgical characterization of different sectors of interest from blasting to the processing plant, facilitating decision making and operational actions when detected during each stage of the plant. With the objective of improving the ore tracking from the mine to the processing plant in a Peruvian copper mine operation, the impact on the processing plant was evaluated in relation to blasting optimizations through a tracker system, relating the processes performance of the whole production chain with the geotechnical and geometallurgical properties ores in real time in the process plant: detecting when it was feed waste, high grade ore, low grade ore and ore with arsenic, among others. Unit and integral tests were carried out over a period of three months, with an implementation of tracker detection portals in the processing plant, which allowed to verify the proper communication of data and the web platform. The tests were focused on several blasts where the ore was in contact with waste and it were directly sent to the plant, with a classification by type of grade (high, medium, and low grade), type of material (ore-waste contour), this stage allowed to make operational adjustments in the field and in the mining operation. Finally, in the economic results, the special tests had 1000 trackers, obtaining for this project a sensitization of a cost benefit for the test stage, for the reduction of 50% of the waste material feed has crushed, with an estimated benefit of 1,987,646 USD.

Jan 1, 2024

By Michael Olmsted

Inspection of boreholes prior to blasting can result in cost reductions as well as increases in efficiency and safety. Until recently, borehole inspection was performed in two manners. For simple inspections, a flashlight was used to view the upper part of the hole. More thorough inspections were performed with long tool strings developed for oil field applications. Borehole inspection tools developed specifically for mining and blasting applications have now been developed. Video Cameras developed for borehole inspection have been in service for several years. Now measurement tools are available, developed specifically for mining.

Jan 1, 2000

By Gungor Tuncer, Ali Kahriman, Abdulkadir Karadogan, Mehmet Aksoy, Kagan Ozdemire

With increasing environmental constraints on the levels of disturbance induced by blasting operations upon nearby residents, there is an increasing need to be able to design cautious blasting with greater precision. Therefore, determination of maximum amount of explosive per delay for a certain distance especially in large blasts is of great importance for the elimination of these environmental problems. Although too many research studies had been carried out in the past in order to eliminate environmental issues produced from blasting unfortunately a general approach or formula has not been established yet because of the complexity of the matter. In addition to the wave and ground motion characteristics, the complexity of blasting parameters and site factors restrict the developing a general criterion. So experimental site-specific studies should be still done in order to predict and control blasting effects. This paper presents the results of ground vibration measurements carried out in Espey Open-Pit Boron (Colemanite) Mine located on the west side of the central Anatolia near Kütahya province in Turkey. Within the scope of this study, ground vibration components were measured for 13 shots during bench blast optimisation studies in order to predict peak particle velocity level for this site. In blasting operations; ANFO and Powergel Magnum 600 (blasting agent), Powergel Magnum (priming) and delay electric detonators (firing) were used as explosives. Parameters of scaled distance (charge quantity per delay and the distance between the source and the station) were recorded carefully and the ground vibration components were measured for all blast events using 4 different types vibration monitors (3 White Mini-Seis and 1 Instantel Minimate Plus Models). Then, the data pairs of scaled distance and particle velocity obtained from the 38 record events were analysed statistically. At the end of statistical evaluation of the data pairs, an empirical relation which gives average line at 95% confidence level and upper bound 95% prediction line with a reasonable correlation coefficient was established between peak particle velocity and scaled distance.

Jan 1, 2005

By Rapheal Trousselle

For over 5 years, Davey Bickford has been developing and testing an electronic detonator blasting system. These new-technology detonators provide more accurate timing than conventional systems that rely on the combustion speed of a pyrotechnic composition.

Jan 1, 1997

By Kai Nielsen

The paper presents the results of several industrial and laboratory blasting, crushing and grinding tests and experiments investigating how blasting can influence the subsequent crushing and grinding operations. The paper also describes how these results can be used in order to optimize the entire comminution process from solid ore to a semifinished or marketable product. Two cases are presented, one looking at the processing of fine grained taconite ore, and the other discussing the processing of raw milling product for cement burning.

Jan 1, 1998