Reduced misfires and costs in the Cadia Hill Open Pit
Document type: Case Study

METALS CASE STUDY

Reduced Misfires and Costs in Cadia Hill Open Pit
 PROJECT SUMMARY PROJECT GOALS
ENHANCED SAFETY, IMPROVED EFFICIENCIES REDUCE MISFIRES AND IMPROVE MINE TO
AND MILESTONES MILL
When Cadia implemented electronic detonators they Cadia had invested significant resources in optimising
quickly discovered that they had more to offer than just their blasting practices and saw electronic detonators as
precision timing. the next opportunity for improvement.

NONEL cutoffs resulting in misfires, due to ground Their objectives were to:
movement along existing fault lines, and the associated
impact on production, were part of everyday life until 1. Improve safety through the elimination of misfires
electronic detonators were introduced, eliminating these 2. Further optimise their mine-to-mill program
misfires with its global arm and fire commands. 3. Achieve economic savings through the accurate and
 repeatable results afforded by electronic detonators
Absolute control over initiation timing allowed Cadia 4. Control blast movement to minimise the impact of
to expand patterns and reduce powder factors by 17% blasting on production
without impacting mill throughput.

Through clever blast design and system flexibility, Cadia TECHNOLOGY APPLIED
was able to optimise burden relief, allowing for the best
combination of blast movement, fragmentation and dig- ELECTRONIC INITIATION SYSTEM AT WORK
ability. The electronic initiation system allows the planning and
 implementation of advanced blast design.
The transformation culminated with the largest electronics
blast in Australia at that time, consisting of 1147 detonators It’s the latest release in Dyno Nobel’s range of electronic
and a total firing time of over 13 seconds. initiation, with a combination of advanced features that
 helps achieve exceptional blasting outcomes.
The mine also made history, as this was the biggest blast
ever fired on site. It is a fully programmable, secure and reliable, easy-to-
 use, RF remote firing system that offers more control over
 blast designs.

There is more control over complex designs to enable
 superior blasting results.

Tangible benefits are at your fingertips through millisecond
 accuracy, complete timing flexibility and a 20,000ms firing
 window.

Precision timing control allows operators to improve
 fragmentation, reduce ore dilution, control throw and
 reduce vibration.

Cadia mine site.

METALS CASE STUDY

VALUE ADDED
GREATER BLASTING CONTROL AND BETTER
EFFICIENCY
One of the most notable achievements of electronic
detonators at Cadia is that the global arm and fire
commands ensured the detonators were ‘live’ down the
hole eliminating cutoffs and potential misfires from column
shift and fly rock.

This significantly reduced the risk of finding live primers in
the muck pile.
 DigiShot tagger.
The two-way communication with detonators allowed the
shot crew to test and verify their functionality down the
hole continuously up to the time of firing.

Dyno Nobel’s innovative electronic initiation system also
allowed Cadia to improve its blasting efficiency.

At the same time that they improved safety, the burden and
spacing was expanded well beyond a cost neutral position
and still provided better fragmentation than before.

By optimising timing, fragmentation was improved to the
point that Mine-to-Mill powder factors were reduced by
17% without impacting mill throughput.

Full programmability coupled with timing increments of
1ms allowed Cadia to also dictate the direction and extent
of blast movement, enabling them to control the amount of
material thrown onto the lower benches that could restrict
pit access.

This also allowed the mine to design their largest shot and
limit excessive vibration.

In the blast, 2.2 million tonnes were blasted in 13.65
seconds.

The mine is now capably and confidently applying blasting
techniques using electronic detonators, achieving results
which were previously impossible with non-electric
detonators.

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