Whole-of-blast system for mining

Dyno Nobel has launched a new 'whole-of-blast' solution for the mining industry in Australia. Incitec Pivot chief technology development officer Robert Rounsley said the DigiShot Plus.4G System was an extremely advanced system featuring a fast and simple deployment method. “The team has developed a ‘whole-of-blast’ solution and this is providing world class value for our customers and the industry,” Mr Rounsley said. “The most important thing is to blast on time but, in addition, also provide a system which is simple and dependable for the end-user.” The DigiShot Plus.4G system incorporates the company's new fourth generation detonator with the new DigiShot Plus.4G Commander and CE4 Tagger. “This new system allows the user to load the delay time into the detonator and then, when connected to the Commander, all the attached detonators will be found automatically," Dyno Nobel applications technology manager David Gribble said . “It really does simplify the blasting process – you don’t have to do anything other than turn the Commander on and make sure the number of detonators is correct.” He said a Commander could be used as a base, a bench or a repeater. “Up to 10 Commanders can be fired fully synchronised via RF, with each Commander firing up to 1600 detonators. In fact, the system has the capability to fire 16,000 detonators in total.” Mr Gribble said the system was also able to monitor end-of-line voltage right up to the point of blasting and could fire through high levels of leakage. Mr Rounsley said the company was increasing the capacity of its manufacturing facility to meet increased customer demand across Australia as more companies adopted the technology as part of their mining operations, . Incitec Pivot chief technology development officer Robert Rounsley. Meanwhile, Dyno Nobel and University of Sydney’s Key Centre for Polymers and Colloids (KCPC) have started a a major research project on emulsion explosives. A $636,000 Australian Research Council grant was awarded for the work to address miners’ challenges operating in high temperature ground in Australia and Asia. “Creating an innovative technology solution that improves safety whilst lifting productivity for our customer, is a key driver for Dyno Nobel, and we are excited to be working on developing this groundbreaking project,” Mr Rounsley said. “We want to progress our learnings and apply this knowledge to develop a new class of emulsion explosives that is tailored to the customer needs who are operating mines at higher temperatures.” Dyno Nobel explosives R&D manager Dr Jeff Gore said the project aimed to improve understanding of the underlying mechanisms behind the physical and chemical breakdown of ammonium nitrate-based emulsion explosives used for mining in geothermally active regions. “We want to progress our learnings and apply this knowledge to develop a new class of emulsion explosives for use at higher temperatures,” Dr Gore said. “Our findings will also benefit the Australian mining industry by allowing mining of resources at depth, where the ground temperature is very high due to geothermal heating or other factors associated with high temperature ore body and importantly will enable miners to extract these resources safely and with improved productivity.” The project commenced in March 2018 and will run for three years.

Whole-of-blast system for mining

Industry Queensland

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