RING DESIGN

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OBJECTIVES

To become familiar with Surpacs Ring Design tools.

To prepare underground workings data for the Ring Design module.
To design sub-level cave blast rings from slices of underground workings.
To calculate the drilling & blasting statistics from design blast rings.
To generate a plot of several designed blast rings.

FILES USED
Files used in this lab exercise are found in the following folder:
C:\RING_DESIGN.LAB\

DISCUSSION
The Ring Design module in Surpac is a suite of tools used for the design of underground
blasts. Many different types of blasts can be accommodated for different mining methods
with Ring Design including, Block Caving, Sub-Level Cave, VRM/VCR, Long-hole, and
Open Stoping.
The general procedure for preparing data for Ring Design is quite easy. Ring designs are
created from sections of original underground 3D models. Basically, in Surpac once 3D
models are constructed of stopes and mine workings, these models can be sliced to
create sections. Blast rings are then designed on one section at a time. The following
diagrams show examples of 3D models of stopes and mine underground mine workings
created in Surpac, and of the sections created from the 3D solid models.
Stope

Top sill drift

Bottom sill drift

Figure 1: 3D solid models of a stope (red) and top and bottom sill drifts.

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Figure 2: Vertical sections through the 3D models created every 10m along the bottomsill drift.
Once sections have been generated, blast rings are designed on each section. The following
diagram is a typical blast ring designed using the Ring Design module.

Figure 3: Typical blast ring designed using the Ring Design module. Holes are coloured
& numbered by sequence.

ASSIGNMENT
1. Create vertical sections of the solids in the file stope1.dtm every 10m.

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2. Design a ring blast on section # 3 from step 1.

3. Charge and sequence the blast ring designed in step 2.
4. Generate a report of blast statistics for the ring blast including, drilled lengths, charged
lengths, explosive mass, & powder factor.

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USEFUL TOOLBAR ICONS

GEOLOGICAL DATABASE
Begin Ring Design
End Ring Design
Open String Files of Sections
Previous Section
Next Section
Zoom to Area of Current Ring
Redraw
Add New Drill Rig
Edit Drill Rig Properties
Select Drill Rig
Select New Drill Rig Position
Move Drill Rig
Move Drill Rig by Distance
Move Drill Rig by Coordinates
Move Drill Rig by Distance From Wall
Move Drill Rig to Previous Setup
Rotate Mast
Rotate Mast by Angle
Rotate Mast to a Point
Select Centreline
Create Single Hole
Create Cardinal Holes
Create Normal Holes
Create Parallel Holes
Create Multiple Holes
Delete Hole
Delete Range of Holes
Delete All Holes
Change Diameter of One Hole
Change Diameter of Range of Holes
Change Hole Length
Set Length of One Hole
Set Length of Range of Holes
Move Hole
Rotate Hole
Snap One Hole to Stope
Snap Range of Holes to Stope

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PROCEDURE
1. Create vertical sections of the solids in the file stope1.dtm every 10m.
a. From the Navigator, click and drag stope1.dtm into the viewport to open it.
b. From the toolbar, click the
button to render the solids.
c. From the Navigator, click and drag cl1.str into the viewport to open it.
d. This is a centreline string for the bottom sill drift. It is located inside the bottom
sill drift solid. In order to view the string click the

button to turn the DTM

edges off, and the

button to turn the DTM faces off.
e. Check the layer chooser in the first toolbar to make sure the layer in which the
3D solid resides is the active layer:
Layer chooser

f. From the Solids menu, choose Solids tools, Section using centreline.
g. A prompting message will appear asking you to Select the centreline start point.
Click to select the extreme southwestern point.
h. The prompting message will then ask you to Select the centreline end point.
Click to select the extreme northeastern point.
i. Fill the subsequent forms as follows:

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2. Design a ring blast on section # 3 from step 1.

a. From the Ring Design menu choose Ring design, Start ring design to begin a
Ring Design session.
b. Apply the subsequent form:

c. From the Ring Design menu choose Ring design, Open section files of stopes
and openings to open the sections created in step 1.
d. Fill the subsequent form as follows:

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e. Note the new items in the Status Bar at the bottom of your Surpac window.
f.

Press the

button until you reach section number 3:

Section number

g. From the Ring Design menu choose Ring design, Setup, Rig properties edit the
drill rig properties:
h. Fill the subsequent forms as follows:

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i.
j.

From the Ring Design menu, choose Setup, Drilling parameters.

Fill the subsequent form as follows:

k. From the Ring Design menu choose Setup, Rig position to select a new drill rig
position.
l. A prompting message will appear asking you to Select the Survey Openings.
Click to select the bottom sill drift as in the following diagram.
m. The prompting message will then ask you to Select the Stope Outlines. Click to
select the ore outline as in the following diagram. Notice that once both are

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selected, Surpac will put a cross hair in the selected drift opening. This cross
hair represents the pivot point of the carousel of the drill rig.

Stope outline

Survey openings

n. From the Ring Design menu choose Create holes, At selected location to create
a new hole at a digitized location.
o. A prompting message will appear asking you to Digitize the new position.
p. Click to select a point approximately at the point indicated in the following
diagram:

Click to select
approximately
here

q. With the function still running click to select a second point approximately at the
point indicated in the following diagram:

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Click to select
approximately
here

r.

Note that at any time if youre dissatisfied with your selection you may choose,
from the Ring Design menu, Edit, Delete one hole to delete a hole or the Delete
all holes to delete all holes.
s. From the Ring Design menu choose Create holes, Between two holes to create
holes between the two existing holes.
t. A prompting message will appear asking you to Indicate the first hole Click to
select the first created hole (left).
u. The prompting message will then ask you to Indicate the next hole Click to
select the second created hole (right).
v. Fill the subsequent form as follows:

w. Notice that in the upper-left corner of the section the blast holes go through the
surveyed top sill. Youll need to edit this.
x. From the Ring Design menu choose Edit, Edit hole length graphically to change
the length of one hole at a time.
y. A prompting message will appear asking you to Select and drag the hole of
interests toe. Click and drag on one of the holes that goes through the top sill at
the toe. Drag the toe downward until it touches the bottom of the top sill drift
(where it would break through if drilled). Repeat this for all holes that go through
the top sill drift as in the following diagram:

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Trimmed holes

3. Charge and sequence the blast ring designed in step 2.

a. From the Ring design menu, choose Charging, Charge holes.
b. Fill the subsequent form as follows:

c. A prompting message will appear asking you to Select the hole to be charged.
Click on each hole starting from the left to the right.
d. When youve selected each hole hit the ESCAPE key.
e. From the Ring design menu, choose Setup, Delay properties.
f. Fill the subsequent form as follows:

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g. From the Ring design menu, choose Charging, Sequence clockwise.

h. A prompting message will appear asking you to Indicate the first hole Click as
indicated in the following diagram.
i. The prompting message will then ask you to Indicate the next hole Click as
indicated in the following diagram:

Select this hole as first hole

Select this hole

as second hole

j. From the Ring design menu, choose Charging, Sequence anticlockwise.

k. A prompting message will appear asking you to Indicate the first hole Click as
indicated in the following diagram.
l. The prompting message will then ask you to Indicate the next hole Click as
indicated in the following diagram:

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Select this hole

as first hole

Select this hole

as second hole

m. To have a look at the sequencing youve completed try this. From the Ring
design menu, choose View, Sequence.
4. Generate a report of drilling statistics for the ring blast including, drilled lengths,
hole diameters, number or drill rods per hole, & to which stope the ring belongs.
a. From the Ring Design menu, choose Reports, Drilling report.
b. Fill the subsequent forms as follows:

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5. Generate a report of blast statistics for the ring blast including, drilled lengths,
charged lengths, explosive mass, & powder factor.
a. From the Ring Design menu, choose Reports, Blasting report.
b. Fill the subsequent forms as follows:

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