Drilling and blasting 10m bench at Subriso west pit OBJECTIVES The objectives of this write-up is to: Determine

e some drilling and blasting parameters Analyse the effect of these parameters on ground vibration, air overpressure and fly rock. Make recommendations as to how blasting can be carried out effectively.

Drilling and Blasting parameters

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Based on the pit design, GSWL standard drill and blast practises, geological information (the physical and structural geology of the rocks) available and the relationships established above; the following scenarios can be obtained

Hole diameter (mm) Bench Height (m) Sub-drill (m) Burden (m) Spacing(m)

Scenario 1 127 10 1 3.5 4.0

Scenario 2 127 10 1 3.5 4.0

Stemming Height(m) Quantity of Explosives (kg) Powder Factor (kg/m3) Initiation System Charging System

4.9 98 0.64 Nonel Conventional

2.0 80 0.57 Nonel Decking

Decking information for Scenarios 2 Scenario 2 2.6m 0.3m 2.1m 3m 0.3m 2.7m Explosive charge

Final Stemming Column Upper Swell Zone Upper Deck column Middle Stemming column Bottom Swell zone Bottom Deck Column

35kg

45kg

Theoretical Environmental Impact Analysis Key among the environmental impacts of blasting is; Ground vibration Air overpressure Fly rock 1. Ground Vibration

Using the scale distance formula estimate the vibration;

PPV = K(R/Q )
Where:

1/2 -N

1) PPV is the Peak Particle Velocity measured in mm/s 2) The ratio R / Q is the square root scaled distance. 3) R is the direct distance from the centre of the blast, measured in metres. 4) Q is the maximum instantaneous charge (i.e. charge weight per delay), in kilograms.

2. Air overpressure The air blast overpressure for a blast hole with confined charge may be estimated by using

P=3.3(R/Q1/3)-1/2
Where; 1) P is the Pressure measured in kPa 2) R is the direct distance from the centre of the blast, measured in metres. 3) Q is the maximum instantaneous charge (i.e. charge weight per delay) The decibel (dB) is expressed as ( )

Where P is the measured Pressure and Po is the reference pressure of 0.000002Pa

3. Fly Rock The relation is given by L = 143*d (q-0.2) where d is the hole diameter (mm) , q is the specific charge (kg/m3) and L is the maximum distance travelled by the fly rock (m). Results 1. The approximate measured distance R used for the ground vibration and air overpressure calculation is 900m and 2000m. K and N are site constants where K is taken as 5000 and N 1.6 At 900m away from the blast at Subriso Scenario 1 Ground Vibration (mm/s) 3.67 Air Overpressure (dB) 109.38 Max. Fly rock distance (m) 705.76

Scenario 2 2.14 107.04 450.84

At 2000m away from the blast at Ningo Scenario 1 Ground Vibration (mm/s) 1.02 Air Overpressure (dB) 101.05 Fly rock distance (m) 707.67 Discussion

Scenario 2 0.62 98.72 717.32

With the analysis made above, the first scenario cannot hold in Subriso west, because the mass per delay is much. More over with the current condition, of the pit going conventional will not be possible thus