Improvement of Blasting Productivity in Underground Base Metal Mines with Open Stoping Mining Method
Open slope mining method is commonly used in underground base metal mines due to its capability of high production. However, as mines are getting deeper in many of the mining camps around the world, maintaining or increasing productivity has become an important issue which must be carefully studied in areas such as ground control, blasting and ore handling. At deep mines with open sloping method, stress levels are often high enough to cause holes to squeeze and/or back damage requiring rehabilitation following each blast. One of the most effective approaches to deal with high stresses for drilling and blasting is to minimize the number of blasts per stope by maximizing the use of available void for each blast. This mass blast principle has found success at several mining operations in Canada. Two key factors contributing to success are (1) the proper evaluation and use of existing voids and (2) the use of electronic detonators. While common practices demand about 30％ void for regular blasts, tight blasts with less void have been proven to be possible by compacting the muck pile to a certain degree. With this principle, it is even possible to complete a whole stope with just one blast as commonly seen in some Canadian operations. In addition, electronic detonators offer a practical means of firing the detonators with long delay durations and high initiation accuracy. Significant production gains have been observed at mining operations with the use of the mass blast principle. It can effectively reduce the blasting cycle time, the amount of re-drills and number of re-entries to blasted areas, therefore making it safer for employees who are involved in the re-drill and explosives charging processes.
underground mining high stress mining deep mining mass blast fast initiation electronic detonators rock swelling initiation design
Qian LIU
Xstrata Nickel, Montreal, Canada
国际会议
The Asian-Pacific Symposium on Blasting Techniques(亚洲太平洋地区爆破技术研讨会)
昆明
英文
203-208
2007-05-08（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）