Scholarly record
INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF EFFECTIVE BLAST BLOCK SIZE IN MINIMIZING DRILLING AND BLASTING COSTS IN OPEN PIT MINIES
Abstract
Drilling and blasting operations are one of the most important mining processes in open pit mines which encompass the crucial part of mining costs. Today, despite the development of mechanized drilling in surface mining, blasting operation has remained as an inseparable part of mining operations in most open pit mines. This paper tries to develop a mathematical model for finding an optimal length and width of the blast block for minimizing drilling and blasting costs in open pit mines. With the approach, the most important parameters affecting the drilling and blasting operations in a blast block in open pit mines will be identified and investigated, in order to minimize the costs of drilling and blasting by focusing on the effective blast block size. In addition, the article introduced a comprehensive set of effective criteria to determine the appropriate size of the blast block using the multi-criteria decision-making method of fuzzy logic. In this regard, applicability score (AS), using an engineering approach, acts as a decision tool to determine the functional blast block selection. Model dynamism provides the ability to eliminate or add some properties, but the new correlation coefficients must be recalculated. Utilizing this decision model, the block size for production scheduling purposes can be predicted such that to have economic benefits and prevent the loss of natural resources. This model was implemented for Chadormalu iron ore mine and the results of different scenarios proved the validity of the model.
Publication Impact Profile
Publication details
References13
Gokhal, V.B Cost Analysis of Rotary Blasthole Drilling, CRC Press, Chapter 14, 2010.
Olofsson S.O. Applied Explosives Technology for Construction and Mining, Nora Boktryckeri AB, Sweden, pp 315, 1988.
Bozic B. Control of Fragmentation by Blasting, Rudarsko-geoloiko-nafini zbornik, 10, str. Pp 49-57, 1998.
Afeni T.B. Optimization of drilling and blasting operations in an open pit mine the SOMAIR experience, Mining Sci Technol, 19, pp 736–9, 2009.
Afum B.O. & Temeng V.A. Reducing drill and blast cost through blast optimisation case sudy, Ghana Mining J, 15(2), pp 50–7, 2015.
Sontamino P. & Drebenstedt C.A. prototype dynamics model of bench blasting design, In: The 10th international conference on mining, materials and petroleum engineering, Songkhla: Sciences and Technologies Towards, 2012.
Bowa VM. Optimization of blasting design parameters on open pit bench a case study of Nchanga open pits. Int J Sci Technol Res 2015;4(9): 45–51.
Tosun A. & Konak G. Determination of specific charge minimizing total unit cost of open pit quarry blasting operations, Saudi Soc Geosciences, 8, pp 6409–23, 2015.
Jara R.M., Couble A., Emery X., Magri E.J. & Ortiz J.M. Block size selection and its impact on open-pit design and mine planning, Journal of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, 106(3), pp 205-212, 2006.
Folchi R. Environmental impact statement for mining with explosives: a quantitative method, Proceedings of the annual conference on explosives and blasting technique, ISEE, pp. 285-296, 2003.
Monjezi M., Shahriar K., Dehghani H. & Namin F.S. Environmental impact assessment of open pit mining in Iran, Environmental geology, 58(1), pp 205-216, 2009.
Phillips J. The application of a mathematical model of sustainability to the results of a semi-quantitative environmental impact assessment of two iron ore opencast mines in Iran, Applied Mathematical Modeling, 37(14-15), pp 7839-7854, 2013.
Chang C.L. Fuzzy topological spaces, Journal of mathematical Analysis and Applications, 24(1), pp 182-190, 1968.
Citing literature
Number of times cited according to Crossref: 1
View or Download full articleAccess options
SWS access login
Login as SWS Scientific CommitteeLogin as SWS Scientific PartnerLogin as SWS AuthorAuthors and approved SWS contributors will read and export their own linked papers after identity matching by SWS profile, email and SGEM GlobalID.
For librarian assistance: [email protected]
Purchase Instant Access
- Article can be downloaded after successful payment.
- Article may be used according to SWS library access terms.
- Article cannot be redistributed.
