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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 Calvin J. Konya

When blasts are designed, we normally assume the best case situation. We assume that all burdens and spacings will be properly drilled, holes will be properly loaded, initiators will fire at the nominal time and the explosives will release their full energy. This type of precision can be obtained at a machine shop where precision equipment is available to do machining, however, in the field, no matter how well a blast is designed on paper, it most likely will not be done in the exact manner in the field.

Jan 1, 1990

By Peter F. Bayer, Fred C. Drury

This paper deals with explosives regulations in the State of Wisconsin. As has been typical elsewhere, there has been considerable pressure to add additional restrictions over blasting in Wisconsin. What we believe to be a novel approach to the problem has been developed and is being implemented. Members of this Society have been instrumental in this approach whereby the emphasis of the regulations is directed at permissible levels of blasting resultants rather than at specific methods of blasting. It is our intent that this paper serve as a guide to others who may become involved in similar regulatory review in other states.

Jan 1, 1984

By A Gene Riggs

The Cerrejon Coal Project in Colombia, South America is one of the largest coal mines in the world. The mine is located in northeastern Colombia on the La Guajira penninsula. The area is in a remote valley 132 miles east of the city of Barranquilla.

Jan 1, 1984

By Paul Worsey, Robert Sickler

Today, America's mining and construction industries are faced with operating under a condition of reduced profit margins. This makes the implementation of new technology far more sensitive to investment return than ever before. For this reason it is imperative that every effort be made to insure that new equipment and processes be designed to maximize their impact on improved quality, reduction in production cost and enhancement of safety. Using these principles as a foundation, a study was made to evaluate potential automation techniques for the blasting industry.

Jan 1, 1987

By John C. Adams, Robin Irwin

In early 1993 a test program was designed to determine if mining costs could be reduced by using a high density ammonium nitrate mini-prill blasting agent. The goal was to reduce mining costs by expanding blast hole patterns while maintaining or improving dig-ability of the shot material. The program was conducted at Santa Fe Pacific Gold's Lone Tree gold mine near Valmy, Nevada.

Jan 1, 1994

By Roger L. Keller

This paper covers the design and test blast procedures for several drop shafts and edits leading to the completion of a recent Rochester Pure Waters Expansion Project . Due to the projects "in-town" presence, and its close proximity to many sensitive vibration sites, very stringent ground vibration limitations and guidelines for blasting were places on each site.

Jan 1, 1991

By Daryl Andershock, Paul Worsey, Brandon Weeks, Kurt Kosman

Several derivatives of soybean oil are currently manufactured and sold on the open market. Of these, the use of methylsoyate as a direct fuel substitute in diesel engines has been thoroughly researched and practically applied. The use of this product as a fuel gave rise to the idea of using a similar substitution in ANFO blasting agent. The first year of a three-year research program has been sponsored by the Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council. The project is funded for the purpose of opening up of new markets for Missouri soybean products.

Jan 1, 1997

By Paul Muehl, Roger Lawrence

The massive sculpture taking place on Crazy Horse Mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota, may Be the most unique application of precision blasting techniques in the world today, It is certainly the largest sculpture in history. And it is being carved not by the usual artist implements, but by engineering of explosives. This paper presents a review of the blastingasting techniques and challenges of blast earring the largest sculpture in the world,

Jan 1, 1991

By J W. Edl, F C. Wu

In instrumented model rock blasting experiments in granite blocks, best fragmentation results were obtained when delays between holes were 1 to 2 milliseconds per ft. of burden and when a rectangular shothole pattern was used with spacings larger than the burden. Effective fragmentation in multiple hole blasts seemed to depend primarily on the full development of the crack network around each hole before the charge in the next hole was detonated. The test results showed that simultaneous or almost simultaneous initiation of shotholes in bench blasting resulted in poor fragmentation.

Jan 1, 1975

By Syed M. Tariq, Paul N. Worsey

Pre-splitting is now widely used to minimize overbreak and to protect final surface rock excavation profiles in large scale civil construction projects, open pit mining and quarrying. Jointing has been shown to affect the success of pre-splitting and the smoothness and integrity of the resulting rock face. Many facets of jointing have been investigated in detail, including the inclination of joints with respect to the desired pre-split plane, the effects of various filling materials, etc. However, the effects of joint frequency and spatial positioning has been paid little attention. The paper addresses this issue.

Jan 1, 1995

By William B. Lee, James J. Jurmu

The Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company operates three open pit iron mines on the Marquette Iron Range of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Open pit iron ore mining began in the area in the 1840's. Underground mining was predominant from 1860 through 1960. Large scale low grade-open pit iron ore mining began in the early 1950's with the establishment of the Humboldt Mine, concentrator and pelletizing plant. This pit operated until 1970, when the reserves were exhausted.

Jan 1, 1986

By Donald C. Clark

The Blasting Contractor as an Insurance Risk involves a discussion of changing times in the insurance market and changing methods of operation in the construction industry. Since the advent of Internal Revenue Service~1 and Occupational Safety and Health Act~2 regulations by the Federal Government in the early 1970's, operations have changed. Many small users of explosives have discontinued any use in favor of subcontracting the drilling and blasting to specialists. This change in operations along with the change in the insurance market has created coverage problems which is the subject of discussion of this paper. Although no definite conclusions are reached, it is an attempt to promote understanding and further the efforts toward equitable solutions.

Jan 1, 1977

By Harnish Miller, Scott G. Giltner

One of the concerns with locating radioactive waste storage sites in salt deposits is how to permanently seal the underground storage areas once they have reached their storage capacity. The compaction of salt using explosives has been identified as a potential method of producing permanent seals in both entryways and shafts to storage areas. This paper describes the test procedure and results of a preliminary investigation to determine the feasibility of utilizing explosives in the compaction of salt. Three simple tests were carried out to measure the degree to which loose salt could be compacted.

Jan 1, 1996

By Kenneth K. Eltschlager, Richard R. Brochu

At the International Society of Explosives Engineers Annual Conference held in Nashville, Tennessee in February 1995, a Seismograph Standards Committee was established. The purpose of this committee was to develop objective performance specifications for vibration measurement instrumentation and field use practices. It was also understood that due to geology, temperature, and moisture in the soils, it is not possible to design and build an instrument to give results which are absolutely comparable for ground vibration. It was, however, considered essential to standardize instrumentation by which vibration can be measured under closely defined conditions so that results obtained by users of seismographs are always the same within stated tolerances.

Jan 1, 1999

By Charles B. Ingram, Neil E. Gehrig

The development of water gel explosive products has been the single most important development in explosive research and development since the invention of nitroglycerine and dyne-mite many years ago. m e Explosives Department of Gulf Oil Chemicals Company has been engaged in the research, development, manufacturing an marketing of slurry explosives and blasting materials for over twenty years. Explosive research and development is being carried out at the Jayhawk Technical Laboratory and the Underwater Testing Facility near Pittsburg, Kansas. There are fourteen manufacturing facilities geographically located around the country to serve the mining, quarrying, and construction industries with a complete line of explosives, blasting agents, and accessories. This paper discusses the Gulf slurry products, their properties, and uses.

Jan 1, 1977

By Dale L. Ramsey

Blasters in the field for years have been faced with the task of plotting blast locations for future reference and calculating scaled distances or seismograph placement from maps,aerial photo's etc.'With the constellation fully operational, GPS provides a satellite signal transmitted to a ground receiver which will display the desired coordinate positioning worldwide, 24 hours a day in any kind of weather conditions. There are a variety of GPS receivers available with varying levels of accuracy. The field trials of a handheld navigational quality instrument for plotting blast and seismograph locations along with other necessary industry related data is the basis of this paper.

Jan 1, 1994

By Zhou Jiahan Wang Feng

This paper introduces the mechanism and the operating process of dike building by silt squeezing blasting. DBSSB (dike building by silt squeezing blasting) has the following advantages: shorter construction period (the construction period is decided only by the speed of rock materials filling)greater consolidation of the body of the dike, more structural stability, smaller settlement. Therefore by conventional standards the same dike can be designed with a smaller cross section than other construction methods, and at a reduced cost when enough rock materials can be provided in site.

Jan 1, 2006

By George D. Raitt, Rudy Lyon

Until fairly recently, Down-The-Hole (DTH or DHD) hammer drilling was never really a factor in large scale open pit surface mining. It was a method confined to water well drillers, aggregate quarries and limestone mines where the hole size rarely exceeded 6-1/2" (165 mm). Also it was somewhat limited to the harder rock areas such as the North East and South East United States. The trend in the big mining pits for coal, copper, gold and iron, was for the big rotary drill rigs with lots of muscle in pulldown, bitload and rotary torque.

Jan 1, 1998

By John A. Huber

At an underground limestone mine in the Central United States; there were plans for the installation of a limestone processing plant. The special design and layout of the plant called for the installation of a tunnel from the underground mine to the surface above. The dimensions of the tunnel would be 10 feet high, 20 feet wide, and would be 500 feet long on a 17 degree incline. The tunnel would be used for the transportation of raw stone to the surface by a conveyor. A second conveyor would transport processed limestone into the mine for storage, that would be loaded out for shipment later.

Jan 1, 1995