Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This paper introduces an engineering approach to estimate the proportion of fines generated during the blasting process. The proposed framework is based on the combination of two Rosin-Rammler based distribution functions to model the full range of fragments expected to be produced during this process. This particular approach, which has been successfully applied for a number of years by the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC), has been improved with the introduction of a new model to predict the potential volume of crushed material resulting from the crushing and shearing stages of blasting. Other sources of fines including liberation of infilling from discontinuities, particle collisions and post-blast processes have been excluded to simplify the modelling process. Validation analysis of the proposed framework has shown that there is good agreement between model predictions and the measured distribution of fines. In three distinct cases, results verified the hypothesis that a single index of uniformity can be used to describe the distribution of fragments in the range of 1 mm through to the expected post-blast mean fragment size (x₅₀). Although some limitations have been noted, the approach appears to provide useful approximations for continuous improvement analysis and applications. The practical application of the proposed modelling framework is demonstrated with an engineering study aimed at assessing the impact of blast fragmentation on the overall production of fines in a hard rock quarry. Results from simulations showed that less crushing requirements due to an overall increase in fragmentation contribute to a decrease in the specific crushing energy and hence a reduction in power consumption requirements. This analysis helped demonstrate the importance of addressing the impact of blast fragmentation distribution on overall quarry productivity requirements; and highlights the importance of adopting a holistic approach when addressing the blast optimisation problem.

Keywords

FINES BLASTING VOLUME PARTICLE SIZE ROSINRAMMLER MODEL

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

BAILEY

, THORNTON

and DUNGLISON

: ‘Mine to mill surveys of OK Tedi Mining Limited’, Internal JKTech report, Job No 99244, 2000.

BAILING

, SHIQI

, DINGXIANG

and CHUJI

: ‘A study of bench blasting in rhyoporphyry at a reduced scale and the statistical analysis of the regularity for fragmentation distribution’, Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Rock Fragmentation by Blasting, Lulea, Sweden, 1983, 857–872.

BILGIN

H. A.

, ESEN

and KILIC

: ‘Patarge Project, Internal Report (in Turkish)’, Barutsan A.S., Elmadag, Ankara, Turkey, 1999.

BRUNTON

, JANKOVIC

, KANCHIBOTLA

, LICINA

, THORNTON

and VALERY

: ‘Mine to mill optimisation at Porgera gold mine’, JKMRC internal report, 2001.

CHUNG

S. H.

and KATSABANIS

P. D.

: ‘An integrated approach for estimation of fragmentation’, Proceedings of the 27th annual conference on explosives and blasting technique (ISEE), Vol. 1, 2001, 247–256.

CUNNINGHAM

C. V. B.

: ‘The Kuz-Ram model for prediction of fragmentation from blasting’, Proceedings of the first international symposium on rock fragmentation by blasting, Lulea, Sweden, 1983, 439–453.

DAVID

, BRUNTON

and THORNTON

: ‘Mine to mill surveys of Minera Escondida Ltd’, Internal JKTech report, Job No 99251, 2001.

DJORDJEVIC

: ‘Two-component of blast fragmentation. Fragblast 1999’, South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1999, 213–219.

DJORDJEVIC

: ‘Origin of blast induced fines. Min. Technol. (Trans. Inst. Min. Metall. A), 2002, 112, A143–A146.

10.

DJORDJEVIC

, ESTERLE

, THORNTON

and LA ROSA

: ‘A new approach for prediction of blast induced coal fragmentation’, Mine to Mill 1998 Conference, The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Brisbane, Australia, 1998, 175–181.

11.

ESEN

, ONEDERRA

and BILGIN

: ‘Modelling the size of the crushing zone around a blasthole’, Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci., 2003, 40, 485–495.

12.

GRUNDSTROM

, KANCHIBOTLA

S. S.

, JANKOVICH

and THORNTON

: ‘Blast fragmentation for maximising the sag mill throughput at Porgera Gold Mine’, Proceedings of the 27th Annual Conference on Explosives and Blasting Technique, ISEE, Orlando, Florida, USA, 2001, 383–399.

13.

HALL

: ‘A critical comparison of blast fragmentation models’, unpublished Masters of Engineering Science thesis, University of Queensland, 2003.

14.

HALL

and BRUNTON

: ‘Critical comparison of JKMRC blast fragmentation models’, Proceedings of the EXPLO 2001 Conference, Hunter Valley, NSW, 2001, 207–212.

15.

KANCHIBOTLA

S. S.

, VALERY

and MORRELL

: ‘Modelling fines in blast fragmentation and its impact on crushing and grinding’, Explo ‘99 – A conference on rock breaking, The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Kalgoorlie, Australia, 1999, 137–144.

16.

KATSABANIS

P. D.

: ‘Explosives technology – open pit and underground blasting’, Part D, Chapter 5, Canada, Queen's University, 1996.

17.

KEMENY

, GIRDNER

, BOBO

and NORTON

: ‘Improvements for fragmentation measurement by digital imaging: accurate estimation of fines’, Sixth International Symposium for Rock Fragmentation by Blasting, SAIMM, 1999, 103–110.

18.

KOJOVIC

, MICHAUX

and MCKENZIE

: ‘Impact of blast fragmentation on crushing and screening operations in quarrying’, Proceedings of the EXPLO 1995 Conference, Brisbane, QLD, 1995, 427–435.

19.

LIU

and KATSABANIS

P. D.

: ‘A theoretical approach to the stress waves around a borehole and their effect on rock crushing’, Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Rock Fragmentation by Blasting – Fragblast-4, 1993, 9–16.

20.

MOSER

, OLSSON

, OUCHTERLONY

and GRASEDIECK

: ‘Comparison of the blast fragmentation from lab-scale and full-scale tests at Bararp’, (ed. Holmberg

), Proceedings of EFEE 2nd world conference on explosives and blasting technique, Prague, Czech Republic, 2003, 449–458.

21.

NAPIER-MUNN

T. J.

, MORRELL

, MORRISON

R. D.

and KOJOVIC

: ‘Mineral communition circuits their operation and optimisation’, JKMRC, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, 1996.

22.

ONEDERRA

and CORDER

: ‘Mine to mill at Laguna Seca, Minera Escondida Limitada’, JKTech Report, Job No 03185, 2003.

23.

ROSIN

and RAMMLER

: ‘Laws governing fineness of powdered coal’, J. Inst. Fuels, 1933, 7, 29–36.

24.

SCOTT

, DAVID

, ALVAREZ

and VELOSO

: ‘Managing fines generation in the blasting and crushing operations at Cerro Colorado Mine’, Mine to Mill 1998 Conference, The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Brisbane, Australia, 1998, 141–148.

25.

SVAHN

: ‘Generation of fines around a borehole: a laboratory study’, (ed. Xuguang

Wang

), Proceedings of the 7th international symposium on rock fragmentation by blasting – Fragblast 7, Beijing, China, Metallurgical Industry Press, 2002, 122–127.

26.

THORNTON

, KANCHIBOTLA

and ESTERLE

: ‘A fragmentation model to estimate run-of-mine distribution of soft rock types’, Proceedings of the 27th Annual Conference on Explosives and Blasting Technique, ISEE, Orlando, Florida, USA, 2001, 41–53.

Estimation of fines generated by blasting – applications for the mining and quarrying industries

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References