Fragmentation Assessment
The primary purpose of blasting is to fragment the rock for further handling or processing. The mine cycle effects of good fragmentation may be felt in loading, hauling, crushing, grinding and secondary blasting processes. The major benefit of fragmentation assessment is to provide feedback to the mine cycle and to use this information to produce better blast designs.
The most common method of assessing fragmentation is a simple visual estimate of fragments on the surface of the muckpile. While being able to detect gross problems this is too subjective for a thorough blast assessment program.
Orica's fragmentation assessment techniques provide:
- Efficient data collection from either fixed or mobile plant locations
- Operator-independent accurate and repeatable results
- Tighter process control leading to optimised fragmentation and lower overall mining costs.