TY - JOUR
T1 - Peculiaritiesblasting in undergroundof drilling and small-scale mines
AU - Seccatore, Jacopo
AU - Gonzalez, Patricio
AU - Herrera, Miguel
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Escola de Minas. All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/7/1
Y1 - 2020/7/1
N2 - Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) is a prominent activity in the extractive industry: considering only gold, it produces about 20% of the world market supply. Despite this fact, ASM is generally associated with the negative aspects of its environmental impact, and operational research is generally neglected. This article emphasizes the peculiarity of the drilling and blasting systems of small underground mines in selected South American Countries. Such Countries, while having large mineral deposits and well recognized large-scale mining activities, at the same time still present on their territory ASM activities that are archaic, highly inefficient and dangerous for the safety of its operators. This article documents drilling and blasting activities from gold mining in Ecuador and Chile. First, described are the outdated and often non-rational techniques employed by miners, to provide a general framework of the current methods. Then, shown is what can be improved and how the current methods can be modified. Finally, some field applications and the comparisons of the results obtained are presented. One case shows how blast pull efficiency can be increased from 82% to 98% by changing non-rational applications of explosive products to rational, scientific-based employment. Another case shows how, by rationalizing blast designs, drilling and blasting costs can be reduced by 9% per month, the advance by blasting increased by 29% and the pull efficiency increased from 70% to 90%. Finally, it is concluded that examples of application show how operational improvements are easily applicable in the field, relying only on tools and resources of artisanal mining, but combining solid engineering bases with confidence-gain and respect for the experience of the miners.
AB - Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) is a prominent activity in the extractive industry: considering only gold, it produces about 20% of the world market supply. Despite this fact, ASM is generally associated with the negative aspects of its environmental impact, and operational research is generally neglected. This article emphasizes the peculiarity of the drilling and blasting systems of small underground mines in selected South American Countries. Such Countries, while having large mineral deposits and well recognized large-scale mining activities, at the same time still present on their territory ASM activities that are archaic, highly inefficient and dangerous for the safety of its operators. This article documents drilling and blasting activities from gold mining in Ecuador and Chile. First, described are the outdated and often non-rational techniques employed by miners, to provide a general framework of the current methods. Then, shown is what can be improved and how the current methods can be modified. Finally, some field applications and the comparisons of the results obtained are presented. One case shows how blast pull efficiency can be increased from 82% to 98% by changing non-rational applications of explosive products to rational, scientific-based employment. Another case shows how, by rationalizing blast designs, drilling and blasting costs can be reduced by 9% per month, the advance by blasting increased by 29% and the pull efficiency increased from 70% to 90%. Finally, it is concluded that examples of application show how operational improvements are easily applicable in the field, relying only on tools and resources of artisanal mining, but combining solid engineering bases with confidence-gain and respect for the experience of the miners.
KW - Artisanal mining
KW - Drill and blast
KW - Underground mining
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85086855822&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1590/0370-44672019730167
DO - 10.1590/0370-44672019730167
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85086855822
SN - 0370-4467
VL - 73
SP - 387
EP - 394
JO - Revista Escola de Minas
JF - Revista Escola de Minas
IS - 3
ER -