Today’s post comes from Alissa Warne, one of our User Advocacy Marketing Specialists.
Earlier this week, we held our first #AskGEOVIA twitter chat to explore innovation in drill and blast mining technology. The interactive Q&A session, featuring our Mining Knowledge Consultant, Anant Khangaonker, focused on the power of mining software to unlock the potential of drilling and blasting operations.
While the use of explosives in mining dates back to the 15th century, technology has made it possible for modern approaches to drill and blast. Despite challenging industry conditions, drill and blast is a tried and tested approach that can determine the overall success of mining operations.
Throughout the chat, we discussed current uses of drill and blast and how simulation technology can generate efficiencies in the drill and blast process, reduce energy wastage and lower costs – all while aiming to maximize productivity and profitability. To read the full Twitter Chat, follow us @3dsGEOVIA
After the Twitter Chat, we sat down with Anant to continue the conversation on drill and blast technology.
How does drill and blast improve productivity and flexibility while achieving operational objectives?
Drilling and blasting prepares the pit face for excavation through fragmentation, reducing the time taken to excavate. A good blast will produce a good lumps-fines ration with less vibration, but the downturn means that miners need to become more efficient. Consequently, the drill and blast department today has to do more with less, whilst still contributing to profitability of the mine.
How can innovative mining technology help miners streamline costs?
Innovative technology reduces the level of uncertainty typically associated with drill and blast, by setting out the blasting parameters. Software helps engineers get more out of their blast holes by providing the data they need, to a precise degree of detail, whether it’s the amount of explosives required, hole placement or how deep to drill the hole.
What role does simulation play in blasthole design?
Simulating blastholes can determine the quantity of explosives needed and where they need to be placed. It can flag potential disasters such as incorrect hole depths/placement, rock that is too hard or soft, or inefficient blast patterns. Without this intelligence it becomes more challenging to plan blast designs and ensure technical success. There is also more room for error without software to guide drill and blast activities. As a mining engineer, I don’t underestimate how important this is to making critical decisions, particularly when it comes to mine safety.
Simulation is also important as it provides engineers with the firing angle to minimize dilution of ore. Good blasting techniques can also minimize unnecessary costs involved in secondary blasting.
How is blasthole simulation possible in the latest version of GEOVIA Surpac™?
Surpac 6.7.1’s new Drill and Blast Module lets users graphically tie, untie and edit holes to be fired in a desired sequence. It enables a more flexible and customixed firing sequence where users can edit the delay to adjust the amount of explosives fired at a given time.
How customizable are blast holes in Surpac 6.7.1?
Holes are customized in the Advanced Firing Sequence Panel according to mine site requirements and the sequence can be animated. Users can combine different, multi-directional blast patterns and watch these patterns come to life via the animation slider. Additionally, users can edit inter-hole delays to adjust the amount of explosives being fired at a given time to minimize vibrations.
Read our blog post on the Advanced Blast Firing Sequence.
How can shot firers benefit from this customization?
Before blasting, firers can customize and simulate firing sequence and track consumables to optimize the blast. The drill and blast process is one area where considerable benefits can be gained with efficient use of technology, for example in terms of design accuracy, improved safety and time utilization.
What are the common pitfalls of the drill and blast process? How can technology mitigate these pitfalls?
The first pitfall is energy wastage. Miners should adopt strategies to avoid over blasting and ore loss. We should consider the performance of explosives in terms of powder factor and enhance blasting techniques. Another pitfall is fragmentation that’s not optimized, which can impact shovel digging efficiency.
How can Surpac help calculate the powder factor needed for blasting?
Surpac can generate a series of reports showing the volume of rock and amount of explosives used. The design and planning of blast masters also factor into drill and blast performance, as intelligent blast master design incorporates safety considerations, rock type/strength to optimize resources.
Surpac has a new feature that allows you to generate new firing plan layer and enable Autoplot to generate firing plans.
For more information, check out our video on the Advanced Firing Sequence Panel in the Drill and Blast module. To participate in our next Twitter Chat, follow us on Twitter @3dsGEOVIA.
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