Impacts of Drilling and Blasting Drilling and Blasting is a complex process, that in many situations is not given the full emphasis it deserves in process development and controlling the costs throughout the mine. For example, the blasting process dictates muckpile configuration which effects shovel and loader fill factors. The fill factor of the shovel […]
Toe and Elevated Floor Problems The problem of toes and elevated floors after a blast can be traced back centuries to when explosive were first used in mining. Why do they occur? What is commonly blamed as the cause of these toes is geology, but how does geology change that rapidly to where one shot […]
How does you blasting burden influence your ground vibration? The burden of a blast is defined as the nearest relief to the borehole at the time that it fires. This can be either through a free face that the borehole was drilled near or a newly created face that was made from previous blastholes firing. […]
Stemming is widely used to ensure loaded boreholes achieve optimum blast results, but can this stemming be creating boulders in your blast? The utilization of stemming is now commonplace in mine and construction blasting projects as it leads to large decreases in air overpressure and ground vibration and increases to fragmentation and muckpile control. Oftentimes […]
The use of proper stemming for decreasing noise and increasing fragmentation in blasting. Stemming is a material that is poured into a borehole after the explosive has been loaded in order to confine gas pressure. Many blasters acknowledge that stemming can reduce air overpressure, often cutting it over 98% compared to an unstemmed borehole. […]
Drilling and Blasting is a complex process involving heavy machinery, structural geology, engineering designs, and thousands of pounds of explosives. This process is specifically designed to optimize the fragmentation while minimizing the cost and environmental factors. Often times mines begin this process and call in consultants to assist in the optimization, however the design is […]
Field Testing for ANFO Explosives ANFO (ammonium nitrate and fuel oil) is a very simple, low cost explosive material used in the mining and construction industry. This explosive has a delicate mixture of ammonium nitrate to fuel oil, which allows it to detonate. Altering this concentration can cause large decreases in explosive performance which will […]
Common Problems with Emulsion Explosives Emulsion Explosives are powerful, heavy explosives that are widely used across the mining and construction blasting environments today. These products are easily pumpable and water resistant, however they can cause large problems with the actual blasting and the environmental affects of blasting. An emulsion is a mixture of oil and […]
Scaled Distance Calculations Scaled Distance is discussed and methods for calculation are given in this video for both ground vibration and air overpressure from blasting. Scaled Distance is a commonly used technique for estimating the vibration and air overpressure from blasts. The term scaled distance is given because the blast where the weight fired […]
Stemming Calculations Stemming In this video Anthony Konya of KonyaInc.com explains stemming and stemming calculations. Stemming is a material that is put inside of a blast hole to help prevent gases from escaping. While stemming is typically put in the top of a blast hole, it can also be used to help bridge mud seams […]