Project goal is to remove a small section of bench and creating a final wall catch bench without disturbing neighboring homes within 750 feet of blast area.

An application to determine how various blast patterns proposed for a project would perform in the field.

A fragmentation model developed in-house by Dyno Nobel was employed to model the fragmentation that would result from changes in the various blast design parameters.

The use of SHA (Signature Hole Analysis) and electronic detonators allowed the mine to dial in optimum timing sequences regardless of the number of holes per delay, resulting in reduced vibration and better digging rates allowing for faster removal of overburden.

As a new mine starting up development, this gold mine in Northern Ontario used much of the blasted rock for infrastructure in building up roads and construction pads.

This operation was undergoing a complete review of its blasting practices and blast designs in order to ensure the most optimized results were being achieved.

Using Differential Energy, Dyno Nobel was able to reduce the number of boulders at a quarry without adding more blast holes.

Dyno Nobel’s Titan ∆E 1000 was trialed over a period of four (4) months at AngloGold Ashanti's Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Co. (CC&V) in Cripple Creek, Colorado. Performance of the Titan ∆E 1000 product was measured against typically loaded production blasts of similar size, in similar geology. Blast designs (drill pattern and blast hole sequence) for the performance and baseline blasts were not altered during the trial, and all blasts, except for one, were initiated using Dyno Nobel’s DigiShot® Plus electronic initiation system. Measured results confirmed that significant value in productivity, cost and blast performance were delivered. The mine reduced its overall powder factor by 18%, realized an 8% increase in shovel productivity in both waste and ore, and in the case of ore, experienced no reduction in crusher throughput. Additionally, they completely eliminated visible NOx after blast fumes in even the wettest areas of the pit.

The primary benefit from the TITAN emulsion technology is being able to note on the post blast reports that no postblast NOx fumes were present. Additional benefits include increased water resistance, increased actual energy yield verses theoretical value, increased product sensitivity resulting in high order detonation, ability to control density, redistribution of energy, increased detonation pressure, same cost per loaded foot, greater fragmentation versus cast movement, and allowing emulsion to be loaded to a lower density in highwall row resulting in the same pounds stretched to a greater height. Success measurements in the overburden truck/shovel blasts included consistent productivity (bucket fill times and bucket volumes) even in harder material located below the sandy strata, reduced post blast NOx fumes based on fume classification chart, few shovel operator complaints, and equal or reduced drill and blast budget. Seventeen blasts were completed without NOx fumes. The pounds per loaded foot was reduced from 51.5 with 40/60 HANFO to 43.1-47.1 range loading TITAN XL 1000. The average difference lbs/ft = 12.36% when 7.6% was needed for cost neutral. Stemming height was reduced from 22 ft to 20 feet to improve surface material displacement. Success measurements in the coal blasts included no roll crusher plugs from slabs, improved shovel production through uniform fragmentation, and equal or reduced drill and blast budget. Ten blasts were completed over afive-week period with no post blast fumes. There was good material movement, uniform fragmentation and generally no complaints or negative comments from shovel operators. Average difference lbs/ft = 11.98% when 4.5% was needed for cost neutral. Pounds per loaded foot averaged 45.33 compared to 51.5 with HANFO.

A review of seismic data from both blasts showed a twenty percent reduction in vibration using the timing solution developed using DYNO 42 compared to competitor timing sequence.

After speaking with Dyno Nobel, the mine decided to implement BlastWeb®, a centralised blasting system that is specifically designed for use in underground mining operations. BlastWeb allows reliable remote initiation of development, production and stope blasting from a safe and controlled location on the surface. The blast areas can be completely evacuated as no-one is required to be underground for the blasting. In addition to the obvious safety benefits, the other main benefit of the system at this mine is a reduction in the re-entry time. After the implementation of BlastWeb, a comparison was made of the blast completion times before and after its introduction. It was determined that centralised blasting reduced the blast completion time, on average, by 10 minutes. The implementation of Dyno Nobel’s Centralised Blasting System supports both the safety of the mine employees during blasting and an increase in production time.

This underground nickel mine in the Midwest United States is relatively young with only a few years of production blasting. The operation is employing a sublevel stope mining technique. The operator purchases Dyno TITAN® RU emulsion and electronic detonators for blasting. The customer was experiencing poor blast results over a substantial period of time. When the customer first contacted DynoConsult® for assistance, the concern was the under-breaking of the ore which left valuable material along the ribs. At that time the mine engineers were looking for guidance on the delay times they should be using to improve the recovery of ore. During the site visit by DynoConsult, it was also discovered that there were a few instances of benches and bridges being left in the stope after mucking. In one stope it was estimated that over $1 million worth of ore was left unrecoverable in the stope. It was also revealed during the site visit that there were issues related to tight digging of the muckpile even though the fragmentation was adequate.