EXPLOSIVES AND BLASTING
Underground mining moves into a more connected era As underground mines face mounting pressure to lift production rates, improve safety and extract greater value from increasingly capital-intensive assets, operators worldwide are turning to integrated explosives and blasting solutions to deliver more predictable and efficient outcomes.
Derrick Menezes, regional manager for underground operations at BME.
A ccording to Derrick Menezes, regional manager for Africa and Latin America. These regions are experiencing growing expectations for safer, more efficient and more sustainable extraction practices that support the global energy transition. “In many of these operations, blasting performance directly influences the productivity and stability of the entire mining cycle,” Menezes said. “Fragmentation quality, dilution control, advance rates and downstream processing efficiency all depend on how well energy is delivered into the rock mass.” In mature mining regions such as North America and Europe, the drivers are different but equally demanding. Here, operators are focused on extending mine life and maximising value from existing assets by accessing deeper or lowergrade ore bodies that were previously uneconomic. underground operations at BME, the need to optimise blasting performance is particularly pronounced in copper, gold and battery mineral operations across Asia Pacific, “These mines must improve ore recovery while reducing waste and energy consumption per tonne moved,” Menezes said. “At the same time, underground stability becomes increasingly critical, with tighter tolerances required to minimise overbreak and maintain excavation control.” A shift to integrated blasting These pressures are accelerating the adoption of integrated blasting and explosives solutions that link blast design, products, initiation systems, charging technologies and performance monitoring into a single workflow. “By integrating these elements, mines can achieve more consistent energy distribution within the rock mass,” Menezes explained. “This reduces variability in blast outcomes and delivers measurable improvements in fragmentation, overbreak and dilution control.” Improved blast consistency supports higher development advance rates, more efficient loading and hauling, fewer secondary blasting requirements and better performance in crushing and processing circuits. Just as importantly, greater visibility into blast execution enables engineers to optimise designs, shorten cycle times and reduce unplanned disruptions through datadriven decisionmaking.
Energy control across the value chain Integrated blasting systems improve control across the full explosives value chain, from design through to initiation and delivery into the blast hole. Electronic initiation systems play a central role by providing millisecondlevel timing precision. This reduces timing scatter and improves stress wave interaction within the rock mass, resulting in more uniform energy release, improved fragmentation and lower vibration levels. “In confined underground geometries, precise timing is essential,” Menezes said. “Improved burden relief reduces backbreak and overbreak, supports blast stability and contributes to safer, more predictable excavation cycles.” Bulk emulsion explosives, combined with mechanised charging systems, further enhance performance and safety. By sensitising emulsions closer to the point of use and delivering them via mobile charging units, mines achieve more consistent loading and improved coupling between explosive and rock. “This approach also significantly reduces personnel exposure in high-risk underground environments,” Menezes added. Digital blast design tools complement these technologies by modelling burden, spacing, confinement and energy distribution prior to firing. When combined with real drilling and charging data, designs can be continuously refined based on actual ground conditions rather than static assumptions. Precision charging underground A key enabler of underground blasting precision is the use of Automated Emulsion Charging Units (ECUs). These systems measure actual hole lengths and apply preloaded blast data to calculate the required charge mass for each hole. “True hole depth often differs from planned depth due to geological variability and drilling tolerances,” Menezes explained. “ECUs account for these deviations and automatically adjust charge mass to match the actual void space.”
32 MODERN MINING www.modernminingmagazine.co.za | SEPTEMBER 2026
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