Case Study

Reduced Dilution and Improving Fragmentation in Slot

and Stope Blasting Decks..

Barrick Darlot Gold Mine, Australia

Decks..

The Situation 640 610 580 550 520 490 460 430 400 370 340 310 280 250 220

0
40
The Darlot Mine is located approximately 680 km north

350
RISE
600

550

500

450

300

250
620 590 560 530 500 470 440 410 380 350 320 290 260 230 200
L1
1
east of Perth, Western Australia. Like the other two
630 600 570 540 510 480 450 420 390 360 330 300 270 240 210
Barrick mines in the Yilgarn District, it is a fly-in, fly-out
operation. Underground mine operations began in
640 610 580 550 520 490 460 430 400 370 340 310 280 250 220
1996 following completion of surface mining.
22.6 ms /m
620 590 560 530 500 470 440 410 380 350 320 290 260 230 200
L1
RISE
1
20.4 ms /m
Mining Issues 630 600 570 540 510 480 450 420 390 360 330 300 270 240 210

Orica mining Services were asked to provide the

timing design and i-kon™ blasting service at Darlot The main blast was fired with 10 ms between holes
Gold Mine for Blast BR 997. Barrick provided the blast with the first hole from the start hole on one side
hole design and co-ordinates data which was exported utilizing 15 ms delay to produce a 5 ms offset between
™
into Orica’s SHOTPlus-i underground software. Here each side of the ring. This can be seen from the
™
various blast design timing options were analysed with SHOTPlus-i underground schematic in the next
respect to continuous improvement. This blast was figure.
fired faster than the previous blasts. Recently blasts at NMR1

16
885 7.8

other mines have been fired using faster timings

producing smaller fragmentation size and increased 15
875 8.4 1
870 4.1

production rates. Fast timing was used in blast BR 14

865 9.5 2
860 6.4

997.
13
855 10.8 3
850 11.0

Technical Solutions
4
12 840 14.4

The blast was broken up into two sections the first the 845 14.1

slot followed by the main blast. The offset was 160 ms

between the last slot hole firing and the first main ring 11
835 20.1 10 8 7 6
5
830 20.6
825 19.1 9 800 18.5 810 18.8 820 19.4
815 18.7

hole firing. The slot fired into a rise at the eastern end,
which was virtually full width. The main shot was then
fired south back into the slot. The main shot had a
large void below except the last three rings that
Results
ramped up along an ore/waste contact.
After the blast the mill holes and top of stope were
The Slot was fired with 10 ms between holes and 30
inspected. The back or north end of the stope clearly
ms running back in the standard configuration with the
demonstrated half barrels. A clean wall was very
centre hole firing first. This provided a burden relief of
important in this stope as it meant the reduction of low-
22.6 and 20.4 ms/ m. After the blast looking at the rise
grade material being mixed with the ore thus reducing
from the top drive the dirt was to be piled up at the rise
dilution. The fragmentation of the dirt inspected in the
end of the stope and well fragmented. The slot was
™ mill holes was extremely fine and consistent.
modeled in independently using SHOTPlus-i open cut
to provide the schematics provided below.

Page 1 | © Copyright Orica Limited Group

www.oricaminingservices.com | Document reference: 100044
Case Study
Reduced Dilution and Improving Fragmentation in Slot
and Stope Blasting
Barrick Darlot Gold Mine, Australia

The photo below shows fragmentation at the draw

points.

Gary Goh (Technical Services Supt. - Darlot Gold

Mine)

Operations Overview
Darlot uses i-kon™ in conjunction with emulsion for
mass blast applications as well as multi directional
blasts. In this example we were carrying out a mass
blast in one of our bulk stope where we had to fire out
a slot in conjunction with multiple main rings. In total
the blast yielded approximately 40Kt of ore.
Conventional detonators were not used in this blast
because of its scatter and the requirement for better
fragmentation and controlled directional firing. As from
the picture above the blast was a success and it
achieved a very good result in blast fragmentation.

Acknowledgments
Orica wishes to thank the Darlot mining engineers
Craig Barendrecht and Chris Faast who were involved
with the firing of this blast.

Page 2 | © Copyright Orica Limited Group

www.oricaminingservices.com | Document reference: 100044