WIRELESS BLASTING

BIG GOSSAN CASE STUDY

JULY 2022

A Demonstration of the benefits of Wireless Blasting System

Freeport Big Gossan Stoping Mine

MUHAMMAD FAQIH - TECHNICAL SERVICES ENGINEER, ORICA

RIEZKY YARIN - BIG GOSSAN PRODUCTION ENGINEER, PT FREEPORT INDONESIA
More than 3,000 blasts and 100,000 wireless primers
successfully fired

General
Evolution of Initiating Systems

2022
2017

SAFETY, RELIABILITY, SECURITY, AND PERFORMANCE

General
Wireless initiation has fundamentally
changed the approach to blasting

WebGen™ removes blast design constraints that were

imposed by the need to maintain access and physical
connection to primers.

✓ Communicates through rock, air and water

to initiate blasts reliably
✓ Enabling new mining methods and blasting
techniques to increase productivity and reduce operating
costs.
✓ Removing people from hazardous areas
✓ Critical pre-curser to introducing automation into
the drill and blast process

4
General
WebGen™ underground applications

General
WebGen™ Surface
Value Propositions
Mine Schedule Flexibility (MSF)
Converting a WebGen™ loaded blast to a haul road allows
greater flexibility in mine pit scheduling and more
efficiencies in the load and haul process, delivering
increased vertical advance in surface mining operations.

Elimination of Lightning
Exclusion Zone

The ability to continue mining operations around a loaded

WebGen™ blast pattern during approaching lightning
events without an exclusion zone.

General
WebGen™ Improves on Bench Safety

Eliminate IE/HE interaction and Snap Slap and Shoot potential Elimination of spotters, lower stemming costs

Eliminate the risk of Unintended initiation during Lightning Eliminate exposure activities, no tie in under highwalls

General
BIG GOSSAN
CASE STUDY
Big Gossan

General
Stope Cycle

Development

Ground
Paste Fill
Support

Paste Wall Big Gossan Slot Raise

Underground
Stopping Cycle

Mucking
& Production Drill
Hauling
Charging
&
Blasting

General
Big Gossan Trial

Stope 2860 – 23 – 16 Stope 2600 – 41– 13

General
Big Gossan Trial
Stope 2860 – 23 – 16 Stope 2600 – 41– 13

i-kon™ Charged Condition WebGen™ Charged Condition

General
Big Gossan Trial
Stope 2860 – 23 – 16 Stope 2600 – 41– 13

i-Kon Charged Condition WebGen Charged Condition

General
Wireless Blasting Benefits

Reduce the exposure of personnel working near

1 brow/open stope

Reduce
Reducethethepotential
potentialofofblocked
blockedholes
holesdue
due to
22 toblasting
blastingeffects
effects

33 Optimization
Optimizationofofcycle
cycletimes
times

4 Optimization of stopes with irregular ore

shapes/conditions

General
Wireless Blasting Benefits
Reduce the exposure of personnel working near brow/open stope

By Using
WebGen™

General
Wireless Blasting Benefits
Reduce the potential blocked holes due to blasting effects

After

General
Wireless Blasting Benefits
Optimization of Cycle Times

Conventional

Bundwall
• By using WebGen™ we can
streamline the cycle time
Logging Rehab of blasting activity by 13 %
compared to conventional.
Every
Blast Next Blasting • In the future, by using full
Sequence Sequence
WebGen™ for one stope the
Prep expected efficiency gains
Charging
holes are up to 25 %

Redrill

General
Wireless Blasting Results
Optimization of Stopes with Irregular Ore Shapes/Conditions

2
1

• Increasing 4% stope
tonnage by optimization of stope
shapes
2 • Minimize the exposure of
personnel and equipment
to potential hazards of
working under paste fill and
hanging paste.

General
Conclusions
• Wireless Blasting has reduced/eliminated the exposure of personnel and equipment
from the hazards of working near brows, open stopes, or working under paste.
• The pre-charged blasting method provides several advantages such as:
‒ Maximizing the length of the blast hole according to the design to get a better
fragmentation results
‒ Reducing the cycle time and eliminating re-work which may be converted to productive
time
‒ Provides flexibility on stope design to minimize dilution while improving recovery

Setting a new standard in safety with elimination of

human exposure at the brow & unlocking
huge potential for productivity gains

General
THANK YOU

2
APPENDIX
SURFACE APPLICATIONS
The safest commercial explosives product in the world
S I L 3 IEC-61508 • Standard Guarantees the Safety Systems Performance
– Used by Siemens, GE, Boeing, NASA, Raytheon for Critical
A N E Safety Control Systems
– Used in Power, Nuclear, Aerospace, Military, Automotive,
F T V Biomedical Industries

E E E • Requires World’s Best Practice Procedures for:

– Project Management, Documentation Management, Software
T G L Design
– Hardware Design, Verification and Validation, Procedural and
Y R Process Control

I
• TUV are the leaders in Functional Safety Systems and are the
T certifiers of our design
– System, Hardware, Firmware Design
Y – Verification and Validation
– Fault-Injection-Testing
– Procedures
– System Safety

General
Reduce or eliminate on bench hazards

Eliminate IE/HE interaction and Snap Slap and Shoot potential Elimination of spotters, lower stemming costs

 

Eliminate exposure activities, no tie in under highwalls Eliminate misfires from wired systems. No cut offs, eliminate hole dislocation impact

General
WebGen removes majority of failure modes of IS/EBS

Detonator communication 9% Pentalite booster failure 1%

Detonator compression 2%

Explosives
found during
excavation 10%

  Wire related
78%

• Eliminate misfires from wired systems. No cut offs, © 2020 Orica Group. All rights reserved.

eliminate hole dislocation impact Qld Regulator1 – WebGen eliminates

~80% of failure modes recorded in FY18

General
Lightning exclusion zone requirement with
conventional initiating systems

General
A lightning exclusion zone should not be
required with WebGen™
This enables continued mining operations around
a loaded WebGen™ blast pattern during an
approaching lightning storm.