Case Study

Improving Loader Productivity through Improved

Blast Timing
Worsley Alumina, Australia

The Situation
Worsley Alumina mining lease is located near
Boddington, 123 kilometres southeast of Perth, in
Western Australia.
Worsley Alumina is a joint venture between BHP
Billiton (86%), Japan Alumina Associates (Australia)
Pty Ltd (10%) and Sojitz Alumina Pty Ltd (4%).
Worsley currently mines approximately 12 million dry
tonnes of bauxite per year, which produces
approximately 3.2 million tonnes of alumina.
Mining Issues
The weathering of clay in warm regions that
experience wet and dry weather cycles forms bauxite.
Often found close to the earth's surface, bauxite is
mined by open cut excavation.
Worsley blasts the waste cap rock to expose the soft
Bauxite below using 102 mm holes on a 3.8 m by 4.4m
burden and spacing. The mining lease is bordered on
all sides by farming land and neighbouring residents.
The mine has a self-imposed airblast limit of 105 dB.
Current blasting practices under these airblast limits
cause oversize and fragmentation issues that affect
the mine’s production.
As part of the Continuous Improvement Partnership
(CIP) between Worsley and Orica, a number of
initiatives were put forward by Orica. To evaluate these
initiatives a base line of the current production rate
was needed as well as an indication of any
improvements made. This was accomplished through
the use of the CyclePro® time and motion analysis.
Techincal Solutions
CyclePro® is Orica’s internal truck and shovel
productivity analysis tool. Video footage of the
excavation is taken and then broken down into
individual components of the mining cycle using the
CyclePro® software. CyclePro® can be run as a
simple comparison tool (trucks/hour) or, as was
required at Worsley, a comprehensive breakdown of
the entire production cycle.
Worsley’s extensive fleet of trucks and loaders do not
have any productivity monitoring equipment fitted e.g.
Modular System. The CyclePro® system proved
invaluable to Worsley by providing an accurate
benchmark and evaluation of the changes made to
their mining cycle.
Due to a change in initiation system, a new timing
regime was proposed and trialled. Cyclepro® was
used to quantify the full benefits of these changes,
before implementing them across the entire site.
CyclePro® was used to calculate truck and bucket fill
factors, real time dig rates, instantaneous dig rates (no
delays), truck and bucket fill times as well as analysing
the individual components of the loader cycle i.e.
forward/reverse, loaded/empty etc.

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www.oricaminingservices.com | Document reference: 100022
Case Study
Improving Loader Productivity through Improved
Blast Timing
Worsley Alumina, Australia

The Result
30hrs of CyclePro® analysis identified the following
improvements:
Av 7.9% improvement in bucket fill times

truck fill factors

As a direct result of the CyclePro® evaluation, the
timing regime was implemented and Orica was able to
make several additional key recommendations. These
additional benefits would not have been identified
without the accuracy of the CyclePro® time and motion
study. CyclePro® proved to be invaluable to the
Worsley – Orica CIP and clearly demonstrates the
power of partnership.
Acknowledgements
Orica Mining Services wishes to thank the customer
for their support and permission to publish this case
study.

Page 2 | © Copyright Orica Limited Group

www.oricaminingservices.com | Document reference: 100022