Kumpulan Makalah 2nd Indonesia Drill and Blast Conference 2013

Differential Energy Technology. 1

Juju Juanda
PT. DNX Indonesia
Address : Park View Plaza 5th Floor, Jalan Taman Kemang 2 No.27 Jakarta Selatan.
Juju.juanda@ap.dynonobel.com

Background
Living up to the vision of ‘Groundbreaking Performance through Practical Innovation’, the
Dyno Nobel Technology Team has developed and introduced a revolutionary solution to the
market to optimize blast performance. Differential Energy is a proprietary method for
precisely targeting Explosive energy to match rock properties.

Geological conditions can vary significantly within the mining landscape. Hard rock bands
and seams sometimes end up at various places throughout the borehole, causing unwanted
effects to the blasting process, such as flyrock and poor fragmentation. Dyno Nobel’s
development team has partnered with mining operators to develop solutions for problems like
this. Through the efforts of many talented employees in R&D, Engineering, Product
Management and Tradestar, Dyno Nobel created an industry breakthrough.

Differential Energy
Differential Energy is a system which combines Dyno Nobel’s TITAN® bulk explosives
with its specifically designed delivery trucks and proprietary AGS (automatic gassing
system). This enables customers to precisely and accurately vary the characteristics of the
bulk explosive in the borehole to create the optimal blasting outcome. The Differential
Energy technology is made possible with a new approach to chemically gassing bulk
emulsion and emulsion blends in both augured and pumped applications. Dyno Nobel has
taken this gassing technology to a new level through the development and introduction of
Differential Energy.

Historically, the explosive energy profile in the borehole was limited by product type and
physics. As shown in the graphic below (columns 1 – 3), the energy distribution varies very
 Kumpulan Makalah 2nd Indonesia Drill and Blast Conference 2013

slightly or not at all using traditional methods and products. The differentially gassed
emulsion (column 4) allows a much greater degree of energy distribution while being 2
delivered at the same rate.

Differential Energy provides many benefits to the mine or quarry such as improved highwall
stability, smoother floors, better fragmentation, increased water resistance, reduced potential
for flyrock, minimized post-blast NOx fumes generation, at potentially a lower cost. Through
this practical innovation, Dyno Nobel can help drive operational excellence for its customers.

Differential Energy in Coal Mining

A. Safety

 Reduces flyrock by placing low density product near the collar and/or areas of low
burden.
 Minimizes post-blast NOx generation with high performance water resistant
emulsion.
 Improves highwall stability, a result of accurate control of energy at the crest.
 Reduces groundwater contamination because thickened emulsion detonates
completely.

B. Control

 Matches energy with geologic requirements to break hard rock seams without
damaging coal.
 Precise energy placement improves casting performance.
 Kumpulan Makalah 2nd Indonesia Drill and Blast Conference 2013

 Unlike ANFO and HANFO, performance isn’t compromised by wet conditions or

long sleep times. 3
C. Cost

 Makes borehole overloading to achieve desired breakage unnecessary.

 Achieves cost reductions in downstream mining operations with proper product
selection.
 Reduces explosives inventory and simplifies budgeting with the use of a single
product and pattern for both wet and dry conditions.

Differential Energy in Gold Mining

A. Put Powder When It is Needed!

Using Differential Energy technology, overall powder factor was reduced. Limiting higher
explosive energy and detonation pressure to the bottom of the hole helped break the toe.
Putting a lighter density, lower energy, lower detonation pressure explosive load in the upper
portion of the hole, improved explosive distribution throughout the rock. This allowed the
mine to reduce their overall stemming by 17%.

B. Increase Productivity

Shovel productivity was measured in tons/hr and increased overall by 8%. At the same time,
there was an overall increase of 1% in the primary crusher throughput.

C. Eleminate NOx

Post blast NOx fumes were readily apparent when the mine’s normal Heavy
ANFO blends were used in rock that was damp, wet, and unconsolidated. The
Titan ΔE 1000 blasts showed no visual signs of NOx in any areas.
 Kumpulan Makalah 2nd Indonesia Drill and Blast Conference 2013

D. Reduce AN Dissolution

Titan ΔE 1000 has excellent water resistance. As a result, it limits the amount of
ammonium nitrate that can dissolve in run-off and groundwater. The Heavy
ANFO bulk delivery trucks at CC&V left roughly 6% of the powder around the
collar, which can contaminate groundwater. Titan ΔE 1000 eliminated this
problem with bottom up loading.

E. Displace not Dewater!

With Heavy ANFO blends, the mine was required to dewater wet holes before
loading. With Titan ΔE 1000 there was no need to dewater. The blaster simply
put the hose down to the bottom of the hole and loaded the hole, effectively
displacing the water with Titan ΔE 1000. This eliminated the need for the
dewatering truck and significantly reduced the overall loading time for wet
holes.
 Kumpulan Makalah 2nd Indonesia Drill and Blast Conference 2013

Differential Energy in Iron Ore Mining

The use of Dyno Nobel’s new Differential Energy Bulk Delivery Systems
provides large iron ore mining companies with a unique and innovative bulk
emulsion loading approach, that will allow drilling pattern expansion while
reducing or maintaining powder factors and explosives costs.

For many years, Dyno Nobel has supplied large iron ore mines using the
unique Site Mixed Slurry (SMS) technology developed in the 1950s. This
made-on-the-bench emulsion manufacturing and sensitizing process offered the
opportunity and the flexibility to vary the charge weight from hole to hole,
based on geology and burden conditions.
In order to increase the detonation pressure and reaction time, explosives
suppliers doped their heavy ANFO blends with various amounts of fine grade
aluminum (1 to 5%). This was expensive to break heavy burden or very hard
rock zones successfully. Today, the supply of this raw ingredient has become
difficult to source and expensive, to the point where manufacturers have
investigated alternative approaches to break areas that require more energy.
 Kumpulan Makalah 2nd Indonesia Drill and Blast Conference 2013

Replace expensive Aluminized Heavy Anfo 6

Replace expensive Aluminized Heavy Anfo with Higher Density bulk emulsion
for severe Geology and Burden Conditions. Provide pattern expansion with
contrant Powder Factor.
The trained bulk emulsion delivery truck operator can program up to four
different loading charges in the blast hole and customize the bulk emulsion
explosive to the desired energy requirements within that hole.
This approach provides a more effective distribution of the available explosives
energy relative to the geologic and burden conditions.

Technology Applied

The use of the new Dyno Nobel jumbo bulk emulsion delivery trucks load blast
holes very rapidly and productively by pumping at the industry’s highest rate:
up to 900 kg/min in large boreholes diameter!
The pure TITAN bulk explosives emulsion can be thickened to a high viscosity
which will prevent product migration into cracks (often times the source of NOx
fume generation) and is an excellent technique for loading in extreme hydro-
dynamic water conditions. With superior product shelf life, it is truly a practical
innovation.

Value Added

1. Maintain powder factors and reduce total drill & blast costs while optimizing
energy distribution within the borehole.
2. Increase bulk explosives density at the bottom of the borehole only (kg/m)
3. From 7.6% to 9.2% more kg/m at the floor level where it’s needed
4. Economy of explosives weight in the upper part of the explosives columns.
Major potential drill pattern expansion (lowering drilling costs) by using
heavier density in the bottom / toe of the boreholes only while maintaining
constant average powder factors
5. Same truck, same product: all with differentially loaded, chemically
sensitized bulk emulsion.
 Kumpulan Makalah 2nd Indonesia Drill and Blast Conference 2013

Appendix 7
1. Differential Energy, Dyno Nobel 2012
2. Differential Energy in Coal, Dyno Nobel 2012
3. Differential Energy in Surface Gold Mining, Dyno Nobel 2013
4. Differential Energy in Surface Gold Mining, Dyno Nobel 2012