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Drilling & Blasting

Refine fragmentation strategy and mitigate risks with controlled blasting procedures

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Drilling & Blasting

Overview

While compliance to the burden and spacing of a drill pattern can be assessed visually, the real risks in the drilling and blasting process often lie hidden beneath the surface. If drill holes go too deep, or not deep enough, the subsequent bench might be uneven – resulting in unplanned site work, an uneven base for excavators, and cycle times disrupted due to blocked access between haul trucks and excavators.

In most mining functions, visual cues on-site are used as red flags for leadership to determine if immediate support is required. However, these visual triggers are lagging indicators, and a more proactive approach is needed in drilling and blasting to accurately assess the performance of your operations.

Key Client Challenges

How do we improve accurate assessments of drill holes for issues like backfill, water accumulation, or if a drill column has eroded or collapsed below the surface?

How do we optimize loading times to prevent the need for additional passes needed by excavators?

How do we optimize our vehicle sensors to more quickly detect equipment wearing out, longer queue times for haul trucks, which in turn are leaving excavators underloaded?

How YCP Unison Can Help

By leveraging drill and blast monitoring through sensors, as well as historical data on geological formations, data analysis and predictive modeling can be used to optimize blast design parameters, reduce wastage, and improve fragmentation. Behavioral change and effective buy-in of new processes is also crucial for worker safety and compliance with protocols, particularly during blasting.

YCP Unison’s drill and blast consulting services and methodologies help your team measure and track your operations accurately to identify gaps and opportunities. We work with your teams to implement tools and systems to adhere to best practice blast design principles and sustain controlled blasting techniques and procedures.