Search Documents

By Robert Hopler

INTRODUCTION NOT so very many years ago the farm was about the last place where one would expect to find up-to-date mechanical appliances. Steam, explosives, electricity—the factors which have made the world in general, and America in particular, what it is today— were indispensable for the railroad and the steamboat, the factory and the mine, but the farmer’s work was generally run on a comparatively small scale, and was mostly done by the muscles of men or draft animals. Today, however, the farmer as well as the manufacturer, the contractor and the miner, fully appreciate the value of labor-saving devices. Every up-to date farm, large or small, has modem machinery that tends to reduce the cost of production or to improve farm products.

Jan 1, 2011

By Bill Birch, Toby White, Ian Brown

costs/benefits of electronic detonators and measure their effects on primary crusher productivity. 9 blasts (3 shock tube blasts, 6 electronic blasts). Measured electricity consumption & primary crusher throughput. Change to Electronic Detonators resulted in a 7% reduction in primary electricity costs and a 15% increase in primary crusher productivity.

Feb 1, 2020

By Maurice Hunter

The paper outlines recent design developments in the computerization of surface crawler drills for the quarry industry. It references the technology firstly developed for the underground mining and construction industry, where automation and computerization has been in demand for a number of years.

Jan 1, 2003

By T Barnes, K D. Sexton, T J. Tope

For the past decade, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has been under increasing pressure from state and federal regulatory authorities to develop management strategies for waste streams generated at its bases, installations, and ranges. Since passage of the Federal Facilities Compliance Act (FFCA) in 1992, concerns have focused in particular on military munitions and energetic waste streams.

Jan 1, 1997

By Yu Yalun, He Jun

Wavelet Analysis is very effective for processing the high-varying signals by its good localization properties. We studied its feasibility of application in the field of blasting seismic signals processing, found the basic representation wavelet for blasting seismic signals analysis, and analyzed a concrete engineering example with analyzing wavelet.

Jan 1, 1997

By Gerald W. Longenecker

For decades, traditional hydraulic engineering approaches have been used for sizing stream channels when stream relocation efforts have been necessary to allow for the advancement of quarry and other surface mining operations. These approaches have been based on various ydraulic models to design channel cross sections and slopes that could pass the required regulatory design storm such as the 2-, 5, lo-, 25-, 50-, or even loo-year events. Designing the stream channel to handle these more extreme ,storm events would often lead to large channel designs which required extensive bank and channel bottom stabilization techniques including concrete, rip rap, gabions, or other expensive approaches. The constructed channels often required ongoing maintenance to remove accumulated sediment and other debris which would settle out and reduce the hydraulic capacity of the channel.

Jan 1, 1998

By Ashwani Jain, D K. Soni

Compressive strength of rocks is often required by mining engineers and quarrying authorities for blasting operations. Uniaxial compressive strength of rocks can be predicted with reasonable accuracy with the help of point load strength tests which can be easily conducted at site by the field staff, simultaneously as the cores are recovered from drilling operations. A number of diametral point load tests and uniaxial compressive strength tests have been conducted on the specimens of different rock types under air dried, and saturated condition as well to study the effect of ground water saturation on strength. It has been observed that due to saturation uniaxial compressive strength and point load strength get reduced to a maximum of 32 and 29 per cent respectively. It has also been observed that uniaxial strength is sixteen times the point load strength in air dried as well as saturated condition. However, this factor used for calculating uniaxial compressive strength may be reduced to a lower value for the safety of miners in field blasting operations.

Jan 1, 1994

By Y Wada, Y Ogata, T Nishida

"Shaped charge is used for blast demolition of steel construction in general. It is important tocontrol movement of cutting part with shaped charge for the blast demolition of steel construction.Movement of cutting part was studied in the small scale experiment with steel bar. A numericalsimulation using the Discontinuous Deformation Analysis (DDA) was carried out. The DDAmethod was applied to the full scale blast demolition of steel construction. Results of thesenumerical simulation was compared with the blasting demolition work of steel tower."

Jan 1, 1999

By L D. Lawrence, W B. Sudweeks, J Bailey

Modern era urbanization is presenting at least one category of explosive consumers with a growing concern for ecological and environmental problems associated with their blasting processes. The construction industry is now, more than ever, being closely monitored with regard to its use of high explosives. In particular, contractors excavating the countless thousands of miles of various trench lines required for virtually every major new construction development taking place in America are being more closely scrutinized by local, state, and federal authorities with regard to blasting practices.

Jan 1, 1988

By John Manka

Emulsion explosives consist of an aqueous oxidizer phase, a fuel phase, and an emulsifier. The ability to use lower-cost sources for any of these raw materials presents an obvious economic advantage to emulsion manufacturers. This paper focuses on using low cost waste drain oils as the fuel phase in emulsion explosive applications. Laboratory studies showed that emulsions made from waste drain oils and agricultural ammonium nitrate prills were usable for emulsion explosives though their shear stability was weak. Customer field results proved that waste crankcase drain oil could replace half of the virgin diesel fuel in emulsion explosives to make an effective emulsion explosive product with a very low cost.

Jan 1, 2003

By Finn Ouchterlony, Gert Bjarnholt, Robert Holmberg

A system for contour blasting with a linear shape charge principle has been studied /10/. In one operation the charge creates two notches along the bore hole wall and breaks the rock mass. The built in notching capability makes it possible to reduce the specific charge and the bore hole pressure to 1/3 of what is used in conventional contour blasting and to ensure that cracks are initiated and propagated only at the notches and nowhere else. The notching capability of linear shape charges has been studied experimentally and the bore hole pressure calculated to aid in optimization of a charge for future field experiments in bore holes with a diameter of about 50 mm.

Jan 1, 1983

By Jeremiah Cohn, Rachel L. Bauer, Catherine E. Johnson

Water is frequently used in explosive applications to increase explosive performance and reduce air overpressure. Water tamping can enhance cutting abilities of shaped charges in demolition and increase impulse of kicking or breaching charges. In explosive disposal, water is used to suppress air overpressure and reduce noise. Despite its widespread use, the specific effect of water placement, whether in front of or behind the explosive, has not been studied. This work evaluates the directional effects of water placement on blast performance using 400-gram sheet explosive charges in five configurations: no water (control), rear-only water (tamped), front-only water (pushed), water on both sides (confined), and a thin front-and-rear water layer (low mass confined) to assess reduced mass effects. Water was sealed in plastic bags and held in position with custom 3D-printed cages to ensure consistent geometry and contact. A modified ballistic pendulum consisting of a hanging steel W-beam was used to evaluate impulse transfer, with high-speed video capturing swing velocity. Air overpressure was recorded using a seismograph microphone. Rear-only water (tamping) increased beam swing velocity by 69% over the control while confinement with water on both sides increased performance by 12% at a 2:1 water-to-explosive ratio and by 50% at 4:1, though it still underperformed the tamped-only configuration. Pushed water alone did not increase beam momentum and reduced tamping effectiveness by 19% when combined. Seismograph microphone data showed that pushed and low mass confined water configurations produced some of the highest air overpressure levels (up to 139.2 dB), while tamped and control charges produced lower levels (~134–136 dB), suggesting that pushed water may amplify, rather than mitigate, air shock transmission. These findings show that water placement has a strong directional influence on blast dynamics: water behind a charge enhances energy transfer to the target, while water in front provides limited or potentially counterproductive mitigation. This study advances understanding of water–explosive interactions and will lead to more effective charge designs for breaching, disposal, and demolition.

Jan 26, 2026

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 David Porter, Nathan Rouse

The implementation of presplit perimeter control in underground mining as a method to decrease dilution yields positive benefits throughout the current and future mining cycles. A case study to understand the benefits of reducing overbreak and underbreak in a cut and fill mining cycle was performed to quantify the reduction in backbreak. The study was performed in a control section of the mine where a presplit perimeter control design was utilized for a length of heading. This control heading was then compared to the existing standard blasting design within the same mining zone. The comparison included multiple aspects of the mining advance including overbreak, dilution of waste, dilution of Cemented Rock Fill, bolt counts, and cycle times. Once mining in the control section was completed and mining commenced in adjacent headings, blast damage due to blast design could be quantified.

Feb 6, 2023

By R Mancini, G Borla

This paper analyses the first results of a part of an EEC research project ("Blasting control for underground mining"). This research that involves three universities (Paris, Torino and Leoben) has been carried out at the Eisenerz test mine in Austria. In the experimental campaign here reviewed, parallel holes rounds have been fired "decomposed", which means with enough delay between the explosions of the successive blastholes groups to allow for a separate evaluation of their effects on the rock. The seismic effects have been recorded by geophones placed at small distance from the blast, the aim being to find out correlations between the features of the seismogram and the good or poor performance of the single blastholes, or of the groups pertaining to the same delay. Indeed, the seismogram is the only safe and cheaply obtainable description of what happens during the blast. The seismogram should be transformed in a diagnostic tool in the round 'calibration' stage, and in a routine control device during excavation.

Jan 1, 1995

By Gene Baker

A new Safety Library Publication (SLP), SLP-27, which is titled “Security in Manufacturing, Transportation, Storage and Use of Commercial Explosives” was recently released by the Institute of Makers of Explosives (IME). SLP-27 makes recommendations for both general security and enhanced security at explosives sites when security risk levels, declared by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) using its Advisory System, have temporarily increased.

Jan 1, 2006

By Jack Eloranta

Building on previous work, this paper expands the template for modeling the economic relationship between blasting and grinding. The actual efficacy of various blasting enhancements is not addressed, however, placing costs and potential benefits in proper context should aid in designing mine/mill optimization trials.

Jan 1, 2014

By Thomas L. Barkley

This paper describes an unusual design for a 12 foot diameter, 30 foot deep circular shaft shot in a close in urban environment less than 100 feet from occupied structures. It uses diagrams, video footage, and vibration results to describe a 3 deck, 17 hole burn round used to pull 17 feet in one lift.

Jan 1, 1994

By Lewis L. Oriard

This paper describes the process of developing blasting specifications for 850 miles of new pipe trench running parallel to an existing high-pressure gas pipeline, often with as little as 14 ft to the existing pipeline trench. The primary method of preventing damage to the existing pipeline was the use of fracture (overbreak) control.

Jan 1, 1994

By Terra Dinamica, Frank Lucca

This paper discusses blast design for vibration control in tight construction blasting. Topics include blast pattern geometry, blast design formulas, loading, explosives & initiation selection, and utilizing borehole deviation equipment and lasers, and rules of thumb. The paper will also explore vibration prediction, neighbor relations, and related topics, such as blast plan submittal. Various projects from metropolitan construction blasting operations will be used as examples. Examples include blasting in the inner city, next to pipelines, and in housing developments.

Jan 1, 2005