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STILLWATER MINE USE THE LARGEST BLASTPED SYSTEM
MINE: STILLWATER
OWNER: STILLWATER MINING
TYPE: PLATINUM/PALLADIUM
LOCATION: USA, MT
BACKGROUND
Stillwater identified significant productivity improvements could be made by the introduction of a remote blasting system. After reviewing several options, Stillwater decided the most cost effective method to achieve remote, centralized blasting was using a radio based firing system, that would operate from their existing leaky feeder system.
COMPOSITION
The system consists of 65 BlastPED Receiver/Exploders (making it the largest system installed to date). These are controlled from the surface, using the mine’s leaky feeder radio system for communication.
DESCRIPTION
The chosen System is the BlastPED LF Version (leaky feeder version). Being dependent on the leaky feeder radio system does restrict the BlastPED operation to close proximity to the leaky coax antenna system (as opposed to the PED version that basically can operate anywhere in the mine). To take this restriction into account, and to ensure high reliability is maintained, fixed blasting stations were set up at each area of the mine where blasting takes place. Due to the disseminated nature of the ore body, there are many small working areas where blasting occurs. Each blasting station has been set up to allow up to five nearby faces to be wired into the BlastPED Exploder (i.e. each BlastPED initiates up to five faces depending on the requirements of that shift). A blasting board was designed to allow the simple wiring of a number of faces into the BlastPED, to simplify the set up and ensure that each face was in series with the others, as BlastPED initiate series circuits only.
JUSTIFICATION
Increased productivity and safety were the prime justification for the remote system. Safety was through the removal of personnel from the vicinity of the blast. Productivity has been improved by increasing working time at the end of shifts because later clearance of zones is possible. With the previous hand firing in the blast areas people had to clear areas earlier, to allow time to leave, before fumes from other blast areas entered their ventilation zones.