ELIMINATING MISFIRES

Anglo American and AEL collaborative effort to eliminate detonation failure

EXTERNAL
MISFIRE DEFINITION

Anglo American defines a misfire as:

Any explosive product that fails

to fully detonate when intended

This includes:
• Impact sensitive detonators (electronic, pyrotechnic
and electric)
• Impact sensitive boosters
• Impact sensitive detonating cord
• Cartridge products
• Bulk explosive products

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Photo source: Anglo American Group Photography
EXTERNAL
MISFIRE HAZARD AND RISK

Misfires increase the risk of an unplanned detonation of

explosives.

This hazard and increased risk occurs at every stage of the

mining cycle:
• Shovel / loader tooth impacting the detonator / booster
• Detonator / booster delivered to the crusher / stockpiles
• Detonator / booster delivered to the waste dumps
• Drill drilling into undetonated explosives
• Machinery / detonator / booster interaction during bench
prep
• Explosive residue leaching into the environment

Applicable to both Underground and Open Pit

All misfire events are regarded as unacceptable.

Explosive safety has to be guaranteed.
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Photo source: Anglo American Group Photography
EXTERNAL
OBJECTIVE

Anglo American’s objective is

To guarantee safe, cost effective blasting that

delivers consistent blasting results to maximise the
mining value chain
Target: mid 2017 eliminate misfires at our sites.

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Photo source: Anglo American Group Photography
EXTERNAL
ANGLO AMERICAN / AEL COLLABORATION

• Anglo American has identified that an unacceptably high level of misfires is occurring across all of its
sites and has started a program to eliminate these events.

• Anglo American / AEL collaboration commenced November 2015, following electronic information
from several sites being made more readily available to Anglo American
– Total failed electronic detonator count
– Total high leakage electronic detonator count

• This data has been collected and openly shared across both parties with the aim to drive misfired
product to zero events at our operations.

• AEL hold contracts across a number of Anglo American sites in Southern Africa
– Supply of product to underground sites
– Supply and Prime Load Tie Shoot (PLTS) contracts at Open Pit sites
– Supply of initiating systems (Electronic, pyrotechnic and electric)
– Supply of boosters (UG and open pit)
– Supply of bulk and cartridge products

EXTERNAL
MISFIRE MANAGEMENT
Causes attributing to Misfires

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Source: Anglo American GTS 13 bowtie
EXTERNAL
MISFIRE MANAGEMENT
Controls to prevent misfired explosives

Controlled 100% by AEL (PLTS contracts)

• Authorised D&B design from Anglo American D&B engineers

• Authorised loading / charging sheets
• Correct stemming and charging equipment
• Operational procedures for placement of explosives, accessories and
stemming

• Traffic management plan for blast benches

• Authorised Tie-in sheet
• Tie-up final inspection
• Test circuit to identify any malfunctioning detonators prior to initiation
• QA/QC over all charging operations

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Source: Anglo American GTS 13 bowtie
EXTERNAL
MISFIRE MANAGEMENT
Controls to prevent misfired explosives

Controlled 100% by AEL (PLTS contracts)

• Tie-up final inspection

• Training and competence of explosives personnel
• Blast firing procedures
• Formal maintenance of explosives equipment and infrastructure
• Blast area authorised access control
• Traffic management plan for blast benches

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Source: Anglo American GTS 13 bowtie
EXTERNAL
MISFIRE MANAGEMENT
Mitigating controls for impact sensitive misfires

AEL duty of care for mitigating controls:

• Identification of any failed detonators within the electronic system prior to

blasting

• Immediate reporting of every failed detonators that did not initiate in the blast
(including location, hole number, time/date, failure mechanism if known)

• Open and transparent data collection and sharing

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Source: Anglo American GTS 13 bowtie
EXTERNAL
MISFIRE MANAGEMENT
Mitigating Action Plan for misfire recovery

Unidentified misfires containing impact sensitive explosives provide a high level of risk to
1. IDENTIFICATION operational staff. Identified misfires may be surveyed and managed in a controlled
environment.

2. ISOLATION Activity that may impact the misfire is removed

3. ASSESSMENT The misfire is assessed for type, extents, remaining ground conditions, causal evidence

4. PLAN FOR RECOVERY The recovery technique is proposed

Misfires represent uncontrolled events and, as such, the risks associated with the recovery
5. RISK ASSESS FOR need to be identified and managed. The appropriate level of risk assessment is, of course,
RECOVERY dependent on the level of identified risk with pockets of bulk at one end and multiple impact
sensitive misfires at the other.

The recovery should proceed according to plan. Where the plan is modified the potential
6. EXECUTE THE RECOVERY change in risk may need re-assessment.

The misfire is considered closed when the area is handed back to operations with no caveat
7. HANDOVER on excavation.

8. ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS The identification of root cause enables site to minimize misfire frequency.

9. REPORT AND CORRECTIVE

The outcomes need to be documented for current management and future reference.
ACTIONS

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EXTERNAL
IMPACT OF MISFIRES ON OPERATIONAL VALUE
Cost of recovering a misfire

• Reduced production rates

during controlled misfire
recovery

• Open Pit trucks cannot always

be re-allocated, therefore
resulting in loss of production

• Panel availability underground

can not always be assured,
therefore resulting in loss of
production

• Further impacts on:

– Poor fragmentation

– Diggability

– Dilution

– Equipment maintenance

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Image source: Anglo American KIO Sishen Mine Manage Misfires Procedure
Costing source: Anglo American T&S costing data EXTERNAL
MISFIRE REDUCTION SINCE JUNE 2015
AEL electronic detonators at AA SA sites

AEL electronic detonators at AA sites

following AEL / AA collaboration

May-16
Dec-15
Jun-15

Apr-16
Aug-15

Mar-16

Jun-16
Oct-15

Nov-15

Jan-16
Jul-15

Sep-15

Feb-16

Jul-16
Detonators Employed
Detonators Employed Failed DetonatorsFailed Detonators
Linear (Failed Detonators)

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Source: Anglo American T&S and AEL site data
EXTERNAL
MISFIRE REDUCTION PROGRAMMES
Failure modes identified from root cause analysis

• Tagging Errors • Sync time out

• Wrong Product • Base not ready
• Fail to Tag • Greyed out fire buttons
• Location already exists • Voltage not high enough
• High leakage • Programming with errors
• Bad fuse • Bad key insert
• Connector damaged • Incorrect channel allocation
• Cable damaged in hole • Background scan error
• Cable damaged out of hole • Last det checked fail
• Detonator faulty • Sync blast setup error
• Testing error: Tagger • No comms
• Testing error: Bench Box • Poor comms
• Testing error: Base station • Current limit
• Blasting error: Local blast • Untagged dets
• Extra dets • Harness break
• Duplicate dets • Missing dets
• High leakage
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Source: Anglo American T&S and AEL site data
EXTERNAL
MISFIRE REDUCTION PROGRAMMES
Failure Mechanism: Operator Error

Failure Mechanism: Operator Error

following AEL / AA collaboration

May-16
Dec-15
Jun-15

Apr-16
Aug-15

Oct-15

Mar-16

Jun-16
Nov-15

Jan-16
Jul-15

Sep-15

Feb-16

Jul-16
Operator error Operator error
Linear (Operator error)

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Source: Anglo American T&S and AEL site data
EXTERNAL
MISFIRE REDUCTION PROGRAMMES
Failure Mechanism: Operator Error (detail)

Tagging Errors - Pre Nov 15 Tagging Errors - Post Nov 15

Detonator Faulty
Detonator Faulty Fail to tag 1%
9% 13% Fail to tag
18%
Location already
Cable damage in
exist
hole
4%
14%
High Leakage
3%

Bad Fuse
2%
High Leakage
20%

Cable damage in
hole
59%

Cable damage out

Cable damage out hole
hole 2%
55%

Wrong Product Fail to tag Location already exist High Leakage Bad Fuse
Connector damaged Cable damage out hole Cable damage in hole Detonator Faulty

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Source: Anglo American T&S and AEL site data
EXTERNAL
MISFIRE REDUCTION PROGRAMMES
Failure Mechanism: Cable damage in hole

Failure Mechanism: Cable damage in hole

Downline failure in stemming

Stemming loader damage
Stemming slumping
Driven over
Dropped down hole
Fail to tag
Connector damaged

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Source: Anglo American T&S and AEL site data
EXTERNAL
MISFIRE REDUCTION PROGRAMMES
Failure Mechanism: Operator Error

Reduction in misfires attributed to operator error has

been achieved by AEL working alongside Anglo
American site personnel through:
• Developing onsite training programs for both Anglo
and AEL personnel
• Providing on-bench training of Anglo American
personnel
• Providing on-bench training of AEL personnel
• Assisting with developing educational toolbox talk
packages to roll out to crews

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EXTERNAL
THE JOURNEY TO ZERO
Eliminate misfires by mid 2017

Future work to eliminate misfires at Anglo American operations to guarantee Safety, Cost and Blast
outcomes:
• Non-acceptance culture for any misfire product
• Formalise standard reporting protocols across all sites
• Deliver consistency in on-bench execution aligned to Anglo American standards
• Collaboration on product development and technology solutions
• Implementation of Anglo American standard Misfire reporting and recovery procedures

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EXTERNAL
 ZERO HARM
means
MISFIRE ELIMINATION

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EXTERNAL