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By Jeff Wachendorf

Due to the competitive nature of the coal industry we are constantly challenged to reduce costs associated with day to day operations. Every facet of the mining operation is scrutinized for cost reduction and possible efficiency increases. This paper will discuss the pros and cons of two different blasting methods. Buffer blasting has been an institution for many years at Spring Creek Coal and very successful in its application. Cast blasting arrived on a trial basis in 1998 and has produced very encouraging results. This paper will describe the design, drilling, and blasting methods currently used, and a comparison of these two methods.

Jan 1, 2001

By Cameron McKenzie, John Heilig, Patrick Andrieux, Andree Drolet

It is widely accepted that both underground and surface blasting operations can de-stabilise excavations to the point where it can threaten the feasibility of mining through personnel safety or OK dilution. Research has been undertaken to outline a practical method in which the impact of blasting will be accounted for during the early excavation design stage by modelling, and during the following production stages by monitoring rock response to blasting operations.

Jan 1, 1994

By Andrew Drake, Mark Burchard, Peter Bellairs

The Astec Bluerock Quarry is excavating an extremely difficult to blast rock type due to its highly variable jointing density that leads to excessive oversize. A drill and blast benchmarking exercise led to eight recommendations to minimise this problem. Quarry personnel instigated a continuous improvement blasting program, that has implemented six out of eight recommendations, resulting in a large reduction in the oversize and increased crusher throughputs for a marginal 7% increase in drill and blast costs. Unit costs have reduced by an estimated 10%.

Jan 1, 1998

By Gerald R. Coonan

I'm really here to talk about my pet subject of government relations. I've been in Peabody's Environmental Quality Department, working on regulations, for over five years, and I have seen a number of individuals in the coal industry who were completely stunned when a new regulation was brought to their attention. Their first reaction was, "where did this come from"?

Jan 1, 1980

By TH Kleine, AR Cameron

Size assessment of fragmentation is all about estimating the population of fragment sizes in the rock pile. A knowledge of the size distribution of particles can be used in applications from evaluating the stability of a waste dump, to optimizing a blast design to achieve a required fragmentation, to on-line control of a crushing and sieving operation.

Jan 1, 1997

By Mike Cammack

Western South Dakota is predominately an agricultural area, with exception of the mining and timber industries in the Black Hills region. With precipitation rates averaging below fifteen inches per year, water is a precious commodity to the livestock industry. There is a constant demand for the construction of earthen water storage facilities (dugouts) to catch snow and rain runoff, or developing natural springs.

Jan 1, 1993

By Ken C. Pruss

Seismic studies have proven that the frequency with which shock or vibration waves are reacting on a structure, in correlation with the amplitude of those waves, has a definite affect of structural damage. Different structures will react to different frequencies. In the past few years, some major coal producers in the midwest United States have shown that with the use of highly accurate detonators and exotic timing patterns they have effectively been able to adjust frequencies and this has enabled the operators to continue their excavation of overburden in environmentally sensitive areas.

Jan 1, 1989

By Paul Downing

A major component of an effective blasting company safety program is the self-audit. A self-audit can help reveal hazardous conditions that should be corrected and training needs that should be addressed before accidents occur, insurance claims are filed, and/or fines are levied. Such audits, when they lead to appropriate corrective action, can provide significant economic benefits for employers by reducing the costs associated with insurance claims, accidents, and injuries.

Jan 1, 2001

By Wilfrid Comeau

Since 1967 Hydro Quebec has undertaken the control of blasting and its effects at its power development sites. Blasts have been monitored using a commercially available three component seismograph. Initially, vibration records were used to establish the relationships between vibration level (resultant of three components), explosive weight and distance for various blasting operations.

Jan 1, 1977

"In order to increase control over blasting, it is important to identify the imperative mechanismsand to quantify their participation during the rock fracturing process. The useful energyreleased by the detonation of an explosive is split into shock and gas energies. The relativeimportance of these two energies in the rock fracturing process is still an area of active debate."

Jan 1, 1999

By Charles R. Welch, Charles E. Joachim

Underwater blasting causes not only ground shock but water-shock. Underwater shock attenuates less with range from the explosive source than ground shock and has the potential for killing fish or marine mammals or for damaging marine structures. The collapse and subsequent oscillation of the gas cavity surrounding the detonation can sometimes produce a greater impulse than the initial shock wave from the detonation. The airblast from underwater detonations can range from nuisance levels to damaging levels.

Jan 1, 1997

By Shannon Studden, Angela King, Allan Koski

Cliffs Natural Resources is an international mining and natural resources company with over 160 years of history. A member of the S&P 500 Index, the company is a major global iron ore producer and a significant producer of metallurgical coal. Throughout its history, employees have been the foundation of the company’s success, which has long embraced a focus on continuous business improvement.

Jan 1, 2014

By Michael D. Duffy, Martin W. Chenoweth

"Tenn Luttrell Company (TLC) is a major lime and limestone producer in the eastTennessee area. The property, which isreferred to as the Chesney Mine, has been mined from the surface and underground overthe past 20 years. The ore body consists of three major zones of chemical grade limestonewhich lay at a dip of 30 _ 65 degrees. In July of 1989, Tenn Luttrell Company made thedecision to reopen the underground operations which had been suspended during a time ofincreased surface mining."

Jan 1, 1993

By James Barker, David Leidel, Don Crawford, Daniel Dorffer

This paper describes the test processes performed to ensure the suitability of an RF-safe detonator for use in oilfield explosives operations on land and offshore locations where RF silence cannot be implemented or the distances from explosive systems arming operations to the RF source or sources are too close for conventional resistorized hot-wire detonators based on the safe distance tables. The test program for the detonator assembly was based on MIL-STD-461E, “Requirements for the Control of Electromagnetic Interference Characteristics of Subsystems and Equipment”, 20 August 19991.

Jan 1, 2008

By Francis O. Otuonye

An application of a time series and systems analysis modeling technique to blast vibration data is discussed. The vibration data was taken from a rock support structure and the surrounding rock mass at distances close (less than 15 feet) to a blast. The analysis technique provides quantitative information on the frequencies of ground motion as well as the frequencies and damping ratios of a near-field support structure.

Jan 1, 1994

By Doug Hoy

The scope of the Cliff Avenue Reconstruction Project in Sioux Falls, South Dakota was to widen a two lane highway to five lanes, along with removing and reconstructing both above and below ground utilities located along the project limits. The objective of this paper is to present the blasting techniques used in the rock excavation phase of the Cliff Avenue Reconstruction Project.

Jan 1, 1992

By T Guiliani, F Ottuonye

Explosives casting is gaining increasing popularity as an overburden removal method in strip mining because the coats of using explosives to cast a percentage of the overburden to the spoil are lower than the costs of using stripping shovels or draglines to do all the overburden removal. This is due to the rising capital and operating costs of draglines and shovels.

Jan 1, 1989

By E Emery Gray, Gary Ard

Each year when hundreds of Engineers and Specialists in the explosives industry meet for the SEE Annual Conference, new ideas are exchanged and new business relationships formed. Harbert Construction Corp. and EGA, Inc., a company specializing in drilling and bIasting, formed such a relationship through mutual interest in such a manner.

Jan 1, 1981

By Bill Romanchuk, Real Doucet

Suncor Inc. has been operating the first commercial tarsand open pit mine in the world since 1967. Drilling and blasting operations are required to facilitate overburden removal and tarsand mining by bucketwheel excavators.

Jan 1, 1985

By Joe Sr Strobbe

In 1933 the Cobre Mining Company re-opened the 32-year-old UV Industry Mine, which is located in a scenic canyon near Silver City, New Mexico. The site location is shown in Figure 1. Current mineral extractions are copper and magnetite; both extractions similar to those mined many years ago. Copper is extracted from chalcopyrite imbedded in the host rock of massive limestone deposits and magnetite, an iron ore, is a by-product of the same extraction process.

Jan 1, 1998