OFFICIAL Preparation of Papers – Innovative Approaches to Managing Reactive Ground Risks in Complex Blasting Applications R Willmore, B Newans, W McCombe, K Robinson, Blasting Technologies, Orica Technical Centre, 1151 George Booth Drive Kurri Kurri NSW 2327 Australia, (Presenting author: Rodney.Willmore@Orica.com) ABSTRACT This paper presents an innovative approach to unlocking new blasting value in complex blasting applications within the mining industry through longer sleep times in reactive ground. The introduction of new and innovative blasting practices is transforming mining and providing significant improvements in productivity, flexibility and safety. A key contributor to this progress is WebGen™, the world’s first truly wireless initiating system for blasting. Designed to enable remote detonation through rock, air and water without physical connections, WebGen™ allows multiple blast sequences to be safely preloaded and fired remotely, eliminating the need for surface tie-ins or re-entry into hazardous areas. By removing physical connections to explosive charges, the technology enhances operational safety by reducing personnel exposure to hazardous zones and lowers the time, cost, and complexity of mine development. However, the adoption of these advanced blasting methods introduces new technical challenges, particularly extending the time between the loading of bulk explosives, and detonation (known as “sleep time”). Traditional systems typically operate with sleep times of a few days in reactive ground1, whereas WebGen™ enabled operations may require sleep times of several months. This shift necessitates a deeper understanding of the longterm stability of explosives, especially in the presence of reactive ground conditions. Ammonium Nitrate (AN) based explosives are very safe when transported, stored and handled appropriately (Shah, 2018). However, once loaded into reactive ground, commonly associated with sulphide-bearing minerals, a high-consequence risk may be introduced, due to its potential to chemically react with AN-based explosives, leading to unplanned detonation. Although sulphides are present at almost all mines (D. Vaughan, 2017), anecdotal industry experience suggests that approximately 1 in 5 of mines encounter reactive ground during their lifecycle. Current industry guidelines and Codes of Practice (AEISG, 2020) provide protocols for successfully identifying reactive ground and testing explosive stability for sleep times up to seven days. However, to address the need for longer sleep times, new protocols were 1 Reactive ground is ground that can react with ammonium nitrate to generate large amounts of heat. It is important to commercial explosives because, if not identified and managed, it can cause unplanned explosions.
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