Wall control blasting practices at the Ekati~(TM) diamond mine

摘要

A review of blast designs and improved blasting practices at the Ekati~(TM) diamond mine is presented along with the results of three blast-monitoring experiments. Blast monitoring was undertaken to investigate blast damage mechanisms in the mine's well jointed rock mass. Rock mass damage caused by production, pre-shear and wall control blasts was measured. Ekati~(TM) uses 270mm holes for production blasting, and 165mm holes loaded with a decoupled charge for pre-shearing. The production blasts are loaded with bulk emulsion/ANFO blends. The mine plan involves using 30m double benches. A 30m high pre-shear is drilled and blasted prior to the production blasting that is done with sequential 15m benches. This paper summarizes the monitoring equipment and data gathered to date.