DRILL & BLAST
electric but the improvements in accuracy are significant.
Based on your experience in the sector, how do you think that safety can be improved?
CJ: Te biggest problem for safety in blasting is a rock hitting the blaster. Moving them to a safe location away from the blast area is currently occurring but is limited by the use of a shot cable of non-infinite length. Having radio controlled trigger systems so that you can move miles rather than meters away will help this significantly.
Do you think that we will see other changes in legislation in the next few years?
CJ: Changes in legislation with regard to the environment will continue. Many efforts are being made by researchers to find realistic values for the legislation as they are currently unrealistic with no quantitative data backing up the values set.
In your opinion, can blasting be made more environmentally friendly?
CJ: Practices of using the correct explosives in wet/dry holes for example can improve visible side effects from blasting such as NOx and blasting on non-windy days can prevent this from travelling outside of the blast site. Tese are practices that have been around for decades. Blasting practices have
not changed, but environmental regulations have become more stringent, resulting in more mines breaching these limits.
There has been a lot of talk about robots in mining and their potential use in the blasting sector. What do you thnk about the real-world potential of such concepts?
CJ: Te use of drones for face profiling and surveying is emerging in the blasting industry. It is becoming crucial for the minimisation of flyrock incidents to monitor the exact burden in front of a hole and drones are being used for this at many sites. Quarries are now using drones to survey the land for reclamation, flat land in the USA (not on swamp land) in many areas is hard to come by. Surveying very flat land to sell after operation for large supermarkets, etc. is very profitable as these quarries are usually close to populated areas.
What other changes do you think are potentially on the horizon?
CJ: Automated drilling of blast holes is under R&D. Coupled with this should be automated drill logging. Tis is currently done by hand, very poorly. Automation of this will provide more accurate drill logs that can improve blasting practices by knowing accurate location of weak seams, water or heavily fractured material and so on. l
in their ways and do not embrace change. These changes will include automation and robotics. Young graduates that have been brought up with computer aided design programs and a fresh take on industry will replace the existing generation.
M
any blasters are stuck
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