Electronic wins Blast-Off
Document type: Case Study

METALS CASE STUDY

Electronic Wins Blast-Off
 PROJECT SUMMARY PROJECT GOALS
SUPERIOR BLASTING AND EXPECTED A WIDE RANGE OF SUCCESS INDICATORS
BENEFITS The key blast performance criteria were:
Dyno Nobel’s trial at a West Australian gold mine set
out to measure the practical superiority of the electronic Productivity
detonator system over the existing NONEL® shocktube The main objective was to increase productivity, particularly
system. The mine Engineering and Geology Departments in the top flitch, by improving fragmentation.
selected sites of consistent geology.
 Electronics realised an increase to dig rate of almost 16%
The blast results were recorded using video footage, in the ore body (bcm/hour), nearly an additional 1500 bcm
vibration monitoring throughout the mine, spot heights over an 11 hour shift.
of muck-pile swell to provide heave profile graphs and
PITRAM data. Instantaneous dig rates were 119 bcm/hour higher using
 electronics. Bucket fill factors increased by 4% and
The expected benefits of using electronics were: excavator dig rates 6% due to blasting improvements.

• improved fragmentation in the ore body’s top flitch Fragmentation
 (with vibration and air blast levels at or below current Dig rates from both observed and calculated sources
 levels), showed increased and improved fragmentation from the
 • improved overall fragmentation and productivity and; electronic blast.
 • less oversized rocks and crusher downtime.
 Oversize
The electronic system’s high-precision timing demonstrated While not directly comparable, as the top two flitches of
improvements in all areas. the electronic blast are compared with the top flitch only
 of the NONEL blast, 195 buckets of oversize were loaded
The trial site was at the northern end of the main pit, known from the electronic blast compared with 143 buckets from
for gently dipping high-strain shear zones and production the NONEL blast.
of undesirable oversize in the ore body’s top flitch.
 Crusher
Due to the bench development, the NONEL blast had Crusher staff said they had not seen the top flitch of high-
seven rows, compared to the electronic blast’s eight rows. grade ore bodies crush consistently at this rate.
In addition, two sections of pre-split were fired at the same
time as the NONEL blast. The maximum crusher throughput was 6% higher equating
 to approximately an additional 1000t per day.

Vibration Analysis
 Geo-technical data appeared to show that the electronic
 blast trace was more uniform (allowing for an extra row in
 the electronic blast resulting in a longer trace).

The WA gold mine site’s muck-pile

METALS CASE STUDY

TECHNOLOGY APPLIED VALUE ADDED
KEY FEATURES COMPARED BENEFITS OF USING ELECTRONIC INITIATION
High Precision The electronic initiation system outperformed the NONEL
The accuracy of the electronic detonator is 0.02% over the shocktube system on all criteria. entire timing range (0 – 20,000ms) compared to NONEL,
which is in the order of 2%. Using electronics, while the muckpile swell was similar,
 heave was more consistent, and less oversize was visible
All realised production improvements are a result of this on the surface. high precision timing. Operators found it dug better than previous blasts and
Safety and Security crusher throughput was consistently higher. A key feature is the ability to check the status of all
detonators before firing, allowing the shot-firer to address Vibration was more consistent across the entire blast. any problems prior to blasting. The trial showed:
There is no use of surface detonators to complete the • electronic blasts top flitch dig rate (976 bcm/hour) was
hook-up, preventing the possibility of a surface cut-off. 16% higher than the NONEL system,
 • electronic blasts instantaneous dig rate was 1211
Once the blast is initiated, all detonators become active, bcm/hour, an improvement of 11%,
firing at their pre-programmed delay times.

NEL system,
 • electronic blasts instantaneous dig rate was 1211
Once the blast is initiated, all detonators become active, bcm/hour, an improvement of 11%,
firing at their pre-programmed delay times. • the electronic blasts second flitch dig rate exceeded
 1000 bcm/hour and;
Detonators cannot fire unless the system provides a coded • maximum crusher throughput was 6% higher (787tph). signal together with the correct instruction and voltage. Today, the mine uses the next generation fully
 programmable electronic detonator system for all blasts,
 which enables design and implementation of advanced
 blast designs.

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