Reduction of Operational Losses by Controlling Hole to Hole Execution of Drill Patterns

摘要

This paper will show a case implemented in a large open pit mine in Chile, this operation has been proposed as a business challenge to make all the necessary efforts that allow it to improve drilling pattern control and increase the productivity of the Drilling and Blasting operations.The requirement for excellent performance in the blasting stage is difficult when drilling performance is poor. The ambiguity associated with the actual explosive load on the drilled blastholes leads to far from optimum results.The value of the strategical drilling and blast administration system implemented lies that the critical information of the operation describe above is always available online in a usable format to act and decision making process.It will show and demonstrate the shocking result of the online blasthole-to-blasthole control carried out in the drilling operation of this mining operation, where a reduction of over-drilling and the abandonment of holes could be evidenced.Considering the over-perforation quantified in the baseline scenario (8.1%), the savings obtained by the process control is reflected in the reduction of over-drilling in the target scenario (4.2 %)With regard to the control of abandoned holes, the base scenario determines a loss of 9.7 % of the drilled holes. In the target scenario, this loss is reduced to 6.2 %.However, US $ 88,800 of monthly benefits earned in a projected annual equivalent US $ 1,065,600.With the use of BlastLogic during the pilot project, the Mining Company showed firsthand the value of having a support system that helps the team of drilling and blasting engineers to take advantage of existing information to improve the productivity indexes of the drilling and blasting processes.