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    Electronic blasting systems beneficial

    March 13, 2013
    March 13, 2013

    Openpit mining and quarry operators are unaware of the benefits of electronic blasting systems and are. therefore, missing out on opportunities to reduce operating costs and increase the efficiency of downstream crushing, screening and milling operations, says explosives specialist Bulk Mining Explosives (BME) Axxis detonator technologies manager Tinus Brits. He adds that opportunities to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO,) the most common of the greenhouse gases (Gi IGs) and a major contributor to global warming are also lost by openpit operators who continue to use older shock tube technologies in preference to electronic initiation systems.

    “Perceptions still exist that electronic initiation systems are more complicated and expensive to use than older technologies. Many operators tend to directly compare costs between the two systems. As shock tube systems are cheaper than electronic systems, the assumption is made that the older technology is more cost effective. Drilling and blasting costs in mining operations, such as quarries, are transparent and, therefore, exposed as corporate targets for cost reduction. Drilling and blasting become focus areas for cost cutting and often, unwittingly, operators do more harm than good by taking obvious actions. No real consideration is given to the benefits of increased production and throughput in the crushing, screening and milling operations, where considerable savings can be achieved.” says Brits.

    “The benefits of electronic systems are huge” he stresses, adding that openpit operators who have switched to these systems over the last two years have realised considerable operational savings.
    Besides the expected benefits of air-blast- and-vibration control produced by electronic systems, other major advantages are enjoyed by operators, BM H notes. “The primary benefit lies in the flexibility of electronic systems like BME’s Axxis systems; one item in the magazine can give any delay required something that is impossible with shock tube,” says Brits. The dramatic difference in accuracy between shock lube and electronic systems is not appreciated, he emphasises. Using the accuracy in a well-designed blast timing plan can dramatically transform operations and allows optimal interaction of the shockwaves between adjacent blastholes to enhance fragmentation, which is not possible with inaccurate initiation systems.

    “Programmability of Axxis digital electronic detonators allows varied settings from zero lo 10 000 milliseconds (ms) in 1 ms intervals. Blasts can, therefore, be modified to suit operator needs and the particular geology of an area. Electronic detonators also do not suffer cutoff problems that are common in older initiations systems, and, therefore, allow larger blasts to be fired without the risk of cutoffs and failures.” says Brits.

    In addition, two or more blasts can be fired next to each other because electronic initia¬tion systems are impervious to rock from one blast site landing on another site. Two-way communications between the blasting box and detonators mean that problems can be identified before a blast. Misfires can also be prevented, as the system will identify where a possible failure will be and this can be corrected before the blast is fired. With older initiation systems, any damage lo downlines will not be identified and the resulting misfires will only be discovered after muck-pile digging has started, Brits notes.

    “To fully realise the potential, electronics companies have to look beyond breaking rock. Finer fragmentation in a quarry blast allows more material to pass through the crusher circuits, thus improving profitability, as more stone moves through the gate. Massive savings can be achieved on electricity costs at the crusher and load and haul rates can be improved. Wear and tear on plant is also reduced. Throughput in tons an hour increases and. as fragmentation is better, the risk of equipment breakdown is reduced.”

    The major, often unconsidered, beneficiary of electronic initiation systems is the environment, says Brits. “The manufacture, transport and firing of 1t of explosives will create about 41 of CO,-equivalent GHGs. To load and haul the rock blasted by the 1 t of explosives will produce about 81 of GHGs and to crush and process the same rock will release about another 321 into the atmosphere.”

    This article was originally published in the October 2012 issue of Mining Weekly

    in News /by admin

    Mining’s quest for a bigger, better bang

    March 13, 2013
    March 13, 2013

    The mining industry is always looking for better and safer ways of using explosive technologies, but blasting still remains one of the most hazardous aspects of mining

    Explosives and mining go way back. Even today, drilling and blasting are essential parts of the mining cycle – the principal methods of rock-breaking and production within the African mining industry, in fact.

    Blasting, used in both open pit mining and underground mining, is the process of fracturing predetermined amounts of material by use of a carefully calculated amount of explosive. Blasting technologies and techniques lend themselves to steady development, in explosives, detonating and delaying techniques, and the like. There are several types of blasting design: bench blasting (including short-hole blasting and longhole bench blasting); ring drilling and blasting; crater or VCR blasting. If you don’t know what any of that means, it’s not important right now, but you probably shouldn’t try any kind of blasting operation until you do. Just a word of advice. In any case, from 9th century CE to the mid-1800s, black powder (gunpowder) was the only explosive available. The Industrial Revolution carried new discoveries in explosives and initiation technologies – now explosives come in a variety of types, and are used in a variety of ways in the mining industry (coal mines, incidentally, need special explosives, called permissible explosives, because it’s unwise to just go blasting all willy-billy in a coal seam). Blasting agents are high explosive agents (much like those used in military explosives, rather than the low explosives used in guns and firecrackers). The best known, naturally is dynamite, developed by Alfred Nobel (see Timeline below), a mixture of nitroglycerin and kieselguhr. ANFO (ammonium nitrate + fuel oils) is most often used for excavation.

    Many companies (for example BME, AEL, Maxam.Sasol Dyno Nobel, Orica Mining Services) are involved in developing and supplying explosive technologies to the mining industry over the years, new chemical explosives have been devised – allowing for cheaper, more powerful, more controlled blasts.There have also been amazing developments in the computer simulations of blasts – allowing for a better understanding of how to employ emplosives in particular mining situations, and providing a measure of risk management. Even simple-seeming advances, like those in explosive emulsion pumps have helped improve power consumption and product life (locally led by the German pumps company Netzh Pump & Systems) can have a big effect on the way mines operate.

    But perhaps the simplest and most effective improvements have come in the timing systems for explosive detonation. Electric detonation used to be all the rage, but it is hardly compatible with long range initiation due to voltage drop. Over the last decade (the first wireless system entered the market in 2000), systems have been devised to deal with this issue. Electronic delay detonators (EDDs) are prized for their accuracy – usually to the millisecond – and their flexibility of programming possibilities, especially as regards timing. Take, for example, BME’s new AXXIS system, a robust system for achieving a high degree of accuracy in blasting, which employs centralised programming to make timing easier and is often used by quarries for controlling vibration and air blast levels and limiting back damage. Shock tube detonators are another safe and useful explosive development – e.g. AEL’s environmentally-friendly third-generation detonators, with safety improvements including improved impact resistance, a reduction of primary explosives in the 200 milliseconds out-of-hole delay detonator and a significant reduction in lead compounds.

    “I’m excited about using electronic detonators or shock tube initiators to improve the quality of timing of the blast, while also making blasting safer,” explains Dr Dedan Vogt, Strategic Research Manager at the CSIR Centre for Mining Innovation. “For surface blasting, the introduction of blast management systems by companies such as AEL can improve productivity and safety.”

    Explosives experts are quick to point out that explosives are actually a lot safer than most people think. But that doesn’t mean they should not be handled with care. Blasting is still one of the more hazardous aspects of mining. Workers can be struck by rock, poisoned by fumes, and otherwise affected by improperly handled or faulty explosives.
    “Safe use of explosives is all about training and following procedures and safety systems,” says Charles Hurly, Marketing Manager of BME. “There are various regulations laid done by the Explosives Act which advise exactly what is needed.”

    That may be why the technology around explosive use is also improving. In some cases, the end result of some of these technologies may be to do away with the need for explosives altogether. There have been a number of breakthroughs in this regard since the 1960s including machines that extract coal from underground seams, hydraulic fracking for freeing natural gas from underground shale, and so on.

    Gold mining hasn’t yet been changed by these developments. But the AngloGold Ashanti Technology and Innovation Consortium (AGATIC) partnership, created in 2010 with a number of capital goods manufacturers and research groups as members, hopes to do something about that. AGATIC has been working towards develop¬ing thermal breaking, hydro breaking, microwaves, laser drilling, and several other alternatives to the blasting way of doing things.

    AGATIC aims to develop machines to replace mineworkers at the slope face, and eventually do away with the risks of blasting entirely. It’s a dream shared by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which has been working on a mining robot programme for several years. Led by researcher Jeremy Green, they hope to complete a prototype to replace blasting by 2018, – and by next year, to introduce a robot that merely improves on drilling-and-blasting methods. Unlike human miners, it won’t have to wait for hours for gases and dust to ventilate and seismicity to settle after blasting, and so could enter the drive and inspect it, giving miners a 3D representation of the area and examining rock looseness. The result: much less lost productivity – shorter inspection times, fewer missed rounds of blasting – and a lower risk of harm to a human inspector.

    Another blasting-replacing technique is electro-breaking – sending a high-frequency alternating current of electricity through rock using electrodes. It’s an effective technique, but experts aren’t quite sure why yet. It could be related to what is within the specific rock and how these elements react to the alternating current. Or perhaps it’s something else entirely.

    This article was originally published in the November 2012 edition of Mining Prospectus

    in News /by admin

    Blasters: Data makes the difference

    March 13, 2013
    March 13, 2013

    Using data correctly separates effective companies from competitors, giving them the edge in improving and developing solutions and products that can add value to customers. However, if data is irrelevant, badly presented or left to saturate company processes, it can become a resource drain on a company, says Nicky Klacar, senior programmer at blasting company, BME.

    “BME has devised a variety of soft¬ware solutions to streamline the production and application of its data. The benefits gained are passed on to customers through highly specialised services that complement BME’s explosive and detonator products,” says Klacar. “Locally developed software has the edge as developers are able to write high-level customisations for each customer. Relationships are simultaneously built between the development team and the user base. Improved communication is the result, which facilitates the delivery of products for customer use. For BME, this communications loop increases the software developer’s business knowledge and reduces the time required for software specification and design,” explains Klacar, adding that BlastMap, one of BME’s most successful software products, originated in such a manner.

    Modifications were made to BlastMap for a customer in Witbank, which dealt with customising reports on vibration and fragmentation and the ability to view and manipulate a plan of the blocks on the mine, before selecting them and adding blast information to them. This was followed by further customisation when another buyer wished to interpret data output from BlastMap to predict the el¬evation below surface of a coal seam and so pre-plan the blast hole depths. From BlastMap, the use of data at BME has expanded to include the development of software solutions used to monitor and report on the development and manufacture of electronic detonators, as well as calculate and refine explosive formulations.
    Accurate data management and subsequent analysis is a pre-requisite in providing a quality output – in this case, a cutting-edge electronic detonator or highly effective explosive formulation.

    “The geometry of blast design has a major impact on blast performance. BME recognised this, and re-designed the cast algorithm initially used in BlastMap. This eventually led to more effective blast designs and ultimately to the release of AxxiSoft in 2011,” reveals Klacar.

    AxxiSoft addresses the weaknesses of Blast¬Map and other algorithms by allowing multi pie nodes, and introducing a burden response time to replace the chevron angle required in the old cast algorithm. The burden response can be changed along both the x- and y-axes, allowing the user to create a cast angle that is not symmetric around the direction axis.

    “This made it easy for the design of blasts with more than one initiation point. It also integrated virtual row with the cast module without having to group holes before applying timing,” explains Klacar. Since the introduction of Blast Map in 1998, BME has seen its offerings grow to a suite of nine products, she adds.
    Development has also resulted in internal process benefits, says Klacar. “BME’s Axxis detonators are now monitored during each stage of manufacture to ensure a high level of accuracy and reliability.” BME has also invested in rugged touchscreen mobile device development, allowing an upgrade from the Psion – a handheld device that was used in conjunction with DeltaDets – to a much more versatile user interface for the Axxis Logger.

    “BlastMap, DensDepth and BME’s other technical programs have been continually upgraded and improved in terms of software technology and add-ins. AxxiSoft, BME’s blast design code for electronic detonator blasts, is rapidly becoming more and more flexible and powerful. BlastMap remains BME’s stalwart ‘general purpose’ blast design code.”

    This article was originally published in the March 2012 issue of Inside Mining

    in News /by admin

    Media

    June 18, 2012
    June 18, 2012

    in Uncategorized /by admin

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    Advanced Initiating Systems (AIS) was formed to focus on optimising blasting solutions in Australian Mines.

    Combining years of experience in blasting technology, booster technology and explosives, AIS provides a unique level of expertise to ensure top blasting results.

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