Patent ID: 9243879
Filing Date: 2016-01-26
CPC Classification: E21C,F42B,F42D

Claim Text:
1. A method of blasting rock at an underground blast site, the method comprising the steps of: a) drilling boreholes in a rock mass; b) loading each borehole with at least one charge of explosive material; c) placing at least one detonator in operative association with each charge; d) conducting a sequence of at least two initiation events to blast the rock mass, in each of which initiation events only some of the charges are initiated, by sending firing signals to only the detonators associated with said charges and in which each initiation event is a discrete user-controlled initiation event; wherein one of the at least two initiation events creates a stranded portion of the rock mass that has been drilled and charged in steps a), b) and c) and said stranded portion of the rock mass is blasted in a subsequent one or more of the at least two initiation events without personnel accessing said stranded portion, wherein the rock mass comprises a body of ore extending between a bottom drive and an upper drive adjacent a stope formed between the bottom and upper drives at a remote end thereof and the boreholes are drilled in the body of ore from one of the drives towards the other drive, and wherein the method further comprises forming at least one rise in the ore between the bottom and upper drives and remote from said stope to form a portion of the body of ore between the stope and the rise, said one of the at least two initiation events being in the body of ore adjacent said rise to leave a pillar formed from said portion of the body of ore and a further one or more of the at least two initiation events being performed in the residual body of ore to the side of the location of the rise remote from the pillar, followed by extraction of fragmented material from the bottom drive, and said subsequent one or more of the at least two initiation events being performed to fragment the material of the pillar.