Screened Drill Cuttings in Blasthole for Tamping of Stemming to Reduce Generation of Fly Rock

Abstract

For sustainability of a mine, productivity, safety and health and environmental protection are the major concern of any blast design engineer. So accordingly he designs the blast round and implement on ground level. In designing a blast stemming length and stemming material play a very important role. Drill cuttings are generally used as stemming material in the blasthole, since these are most readily available near blastholes. This type of material was not able to prevent ejection of gases from the stemming part. Therefore, study was conducted to assess the impact of dust separated drill cuttings on blasting results. From the study it was found that use of screened drill cuttings provided better interlocking in between rock particles which did not allow the gases to eject from stemming part. The screened drill cutting having size of 3-7mm provided improved blasting results in terms of reduced gas ejection, less dusty environment, less fly rock, better fragmentation, loose muckpile and reduced explosive consumption.