Assessment of Charge Initiation Techniques Effect on Blast Fragmentation and Environmental Safety: An Application of WipFrag Software

Blast charge initiation procedures have a significant impact on both mining safety and production rates. In this study, the inventory benefit of an electric initiation system was investigated to assess its influence on both fragmentation and blast-induced damages. The WipFrag software was used to examine the size distribution and productivity of 12 small-scale blasts initiated by both nonelectric and electric detonators. All blast rounds were initiated with plain-type electric and NONEL detonators. The average burden, spacing, stemming length, and charge weight were, respectively, 0.85 m, 1.10 m, 0.66 m, and 1.1 kg. The results showed that the mesh through which 80% of the blast fragments passed for the electric blast was smaller than the mesh through which the material products from the NONEL blast passed. The results also demonstrated that the generated blast-induced ground vibration (PPV) from all blast rounds for electric blast varied from 0.4–1.2 mm/s and 80–105 dB, while that for nonelectric blast ranged from 0.05–0.2 mm/s and 72–95 dB. As a result, the electric blast initiation technique was found to produce good fragmentation, with a higher percentage of optimum fragment sizes on spec than nonelectrically initiated blasts.