Hole to Hole Interaction in Production Blasting at Mount Tom Price

During a programme of explosive performance evaluation at Hamersley Iron, Mount Tom Price Mining Operations, the relative performances of a range of heavy ANFO explosives were compared during normal production blasting operations. In addition, a number of heavily instrumented single hole blasting trials were conducted with each product type. The blasts were monitored in terms of blasthole velocity of detonation (VOD), measured using multi-point plasma conductivity probes with up to 16 measurements per blasthole. Up to 16 blastholes were monitored in each production blast. The results of measurements show a marked difference in performance of all heavy ANFO products between single blastholes and full production blasts, indicating a significant degree of interaction between blastholes in production blasting. The interaction is shown to result in a loss of detonation pressure of explosive, and considered to lead to a loss of fragmentation. The degree of interaction is seen to increase with increasing emulsion content in the products, and is more pronounced in some explosive types than others. The paper presents the methods of measurement and analysis, and the results of monitoring, together with implications on blast design and application of heavy ANFO products.