32

SURFACE DRILLING

Optimising the blast process:

getting it right from the start
Leica Geosystems Mining looks at how high-precision drill guidance systems can help mining
operations to improve their drill and blast activities, benefiting every step of the mining process
Newmont
Boddington
Golds drilling
operations with
J2drill installed

Below:
navigation to
the hole.
Bottom:
positioning
over the hole

lasting is one of the first stages of

a mining operation. Other downstream activities, such as excavation or milling that lead to delivering the
end product, rely on the blasting operation to be efficient and on schedule. This
means a key ingredient in improving
production efficiencies, from mine to
mill, can be tracked back to how effectively blasting operations are carried out.
Historically, mining companies would
blast without an efficient or accurate drill
and blast process. However, they now
realise that these are important to
improve the overall efficiencies from
mine to mill, says Dr Brendon Lilly,
product manager for J2drill and Jps at
Leica Geosystems Mining.
Several different areas contribute to
blasting inefficiencies. Irregular hole
placement can cause poor fragmentation
which results in difficult digging for the
loading equipment and increased
processing time at the mill. Inaccurate
depths can result in uneven benches.
A misunderstanding of how hard the
ground is can lead to a poor choice of
explosive product for a particular blast.
In order to help improve blasting

operations, Leica Geosystems Mining

has developed a high-precision guidance
product called J2drill. J2drill helps drill
and blast engineers, as well as operators,
to carry out tasks to plan. The system
provides valuable feedback in real time
(via the on-board computer in the cabin,
and also at the dispatch centre) to
ensure better decisions are made before
they affect downstream operations.
There are several areas where a drill
guidance product, such as J2drill, can
contribute to improvements in
production efficiencies and have a
positive impact on the overall blast
quality. These are: navigation, production, consumables, time utilisation,
hardness, reporting and support.

HIGH-PRECISION NAVIGATION
Using navigation or guidance systems to
improve hole placement provides
significant efficiency improvements. It
reduces the time the drill operator
spends positioning over the hole,
reducing the overall time for completing
the pattern. Improved hole placement
also results in predictable blast
fragmentation, which improves material
extraction by the loading equipment.
This results in less wear on digging
implements, thus reducing costs.
J2drill provides machine guidance for
both rotary blasthole production rigs and

articulated drill rigs. The drill rig is

displayed on the in-cabin J2drill display
in relation to a virtual drill pattern. The
operator uses this to guide the drill into
position over the hole to be drilled. The
system will automatically zoom as the
machine approaches the hole and, once
close enough, displays the distance they
have left to travel to get to the top of
the hole.
High-precision GPS positioning fitted
to every machine means that surveyors
no longer have to set out patterns. This
removes the need for them to be in the
field, reducing both the risk of injury and
resulting in a subsequent reduction of
light vehicle and heavy vehicle
interaction.
A mine sites number-one priority is
their employees safety. By removing the
surveyor from the environment, their
exposure to dangerous areas and to
mine site equipment is significantly
reduced, states Lilly.
Of particular note, the J2drill system
supports vertical, angle and articulated
drilling. This includes drilling to a
specified toe position or elevation, and
dynamic compensation of collar position.
J2drill automatically compensates for any
sloping ground to achieve the correct
position of the hole and surveys the
correct depth to which to drill.
All machines fitted with a Leica Jigsaw

June 2014

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SURFACE DRILLING

33

Drilling a hole to
the correct
depth (far left);
KPIs (left)

system are displayed on each operators

screen. This ensures that all operators
with a J2drill system can see the location
of other drills, as well as other machines
such as dozers, auxiliary units or
supervisors/light vehicles which may be
on or near the pattern. As one rig drills a
hole, all other J2drill systems are
updated so that all operators have a
clear understanding of what holes have
been completed and what remain.

INCREASED PRODUCTION
Guidance systems can also assist the
drill production process, ensuring that
holes are drilled to the correct depth.
Once guided to the hole, the system
automatically calculates the target depth
based on the actual bench elevation and

the designed toe elevation. Once the

operator has levelled the drill, placed the
bit on the ground and zeroed the hole,
J2drill automatically switches to the
production screen.
On this screen, the operator can see a
graphical representation of the position
of the bit in the hole, the hole depth,
rate of penetration (ROP), a graph of the
ROP down the current and previous
holes, and other production related
information.
The system detects steel changes
automatically and once the target depth
has been reached, the operator is
The manual entering
of reasons for
stoppage

informed. This ensures that over-drilling

is minimised, leading to flatter benches
and greater adherence to design.
During drilling, the operator is shown
a number of statistics of the progress
down the hole. The operator can view
key performance indicators (KPIs) at any
time during their shift, and track
performance against pre-defined
targets. This gives the operator an
immediate insight into how they are
tracking against the planned outcomes.
All of this information is available in the
office for the drill-and-blast and dispatch
teams, as well as other users.

Drill
More
with RockMore

Bits
Rods
Couplings
Shanks
DTH

Mining
Construction
Quarrying
Tunneling
Water-well

R o c k M o r e
International
Rock Drilling Tools

Wilsonville, Oregon USA

Tel +1 (503) 682-1001
info@rockmore-intl.com

Judenburg, Austria
Tel +43 3572-86300
austria@rockmore-intl.com

www.rockmore-intl.com
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June 2014

34

SURFACE DRILLING

Right: hardness
bands displayed
to operator.
Far right: drill
pattern
displayed in the
Leica Jminops
office
application

CONSUMABLE TRACKING

Greg Green,
drill operator
at Newmont
Boddington
Gold

Web interface of
reporting and
dashboards

Efficient drilling relies on having

consumables, such as drill bits, in good
condition. Drilling with a worn-out bit
will slow operations and replacing
consumables too early will result in lost
time and additional replacement costs.
J2drill tracks the use of drilling
consumables on the machine so that the
mine can optimise the life of each
component.
The list of consumables is either
entered manually or imported using a
custom import via the Leica Jmineops
software platform. The information is
downloaded to the drills and the
operator selects the drill components
that are currently mounted on the
machine.
J2drill then tracks the time and metres

of each component, and whether the

component is a rebuild or not.

applied to achieve optimal fragmentation for the mill.

EFFICIENT UTILISATION

REPORTING FOR BUSINESS

INTELLIGENCE

While it is important for an operator to

have better tools to drill more holes
more accurately and more efficiently, it is
also important to capture time
utilisation.
Leica J2drill automatically detects the
activity changes during the hole,
minimising operator-to-screen
interaction. This function, as well as the
manual entering of reasons for
stoppages, enables the system to
provide utilisation data to improve
practices in drilling operations. By
analysing where delays occur, and by
putting actions into place to address
these occurrences, the drilling process
can be further optimised.

Making use of all of the recorded

information is achieved though
reporting. The as drilled data is
replicated back to the server in real time,
and this allows the data to be further
analysed, trends established and
responses to real-time deviations to the
plan initiated.
Using a web-based client, a reporting
bundle provides dashboards, periodic
reporting and the ability to drill down
and find out what has occurred. OLAP
cubes are also used to efficiently process
large amounts of data into a format that
is user-friendly, and provides the user
with access to data that can drive drilling
operation efficiencies.

HARDNESS IDENTIFICATION
Another area that helps to optimise blast
efficiency stems from knowing the
hardness of the material drilled using
measurement while drilling (MWD)
techniques. This can be used to improve
blast design while providing real-time
feedback to the operator to optimise
drilling down the hole.
In coal mines, down-the-hole profiling
data can be used to detect coal seams
and adjust the mine model or perform
through-seam blasting. It can also
identify hard bands to change the
loading design. In harder rock mines,
a contouring profile across the pattern
can be displayed to understand where
different blasting techniques need to be

OPERATIONAL SUPPORT
Finally, drill and blast activities often take
place in the harshest of environments,
where uptime and the support of any
technology is a critical success factor.
The Leica Jigsaw system is designed to
be easily maintained. Through on-board
diagnostics and remote connections,
staff can see what the operator is seeing
in real time. This global support aids
on-the-spot training and provides the
ability to upgrade the system from
anywhere in the world.
Optimising all of the key process
factors mentioned above will lead to a
more efficient mining operation across
the entire production cycle.

June 2014

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