OPERATIONS

AND SAFETY
AWARD WINNER

orica.com/wireless
 Operations and Safety
Turning a Loaded Blast Pattern
into a Haul Road with WebGen™
WEBGEN™ – WORLD’S FIRST
WIRELESS INITIATING SYSTEM
Fast gaining adoption across both
the surface and underground mining
segments to initiate bulk explosives
since its introduction in 2017,
WebGen™ continues to enable
new mining methods for safer
and more productive operations.
The award-winning Mine Schedule
Flexibility solution, enabled by
WebGen™, removes the need for
in-hole and surface wires or signal
tubes used by conventional initiation
systems to transmit firing signals.
The technology leverages magnetic
induction to transmit encrypted arm
and fire codes from an antenna to
the primers located in blastholes.
Eliminating physical wired
connections to a blast or within the
blasthole has opened a whole new
range of possibilities for both blasting
WebGen™ Safety Integrity Level 3
rating (SIL3) provides the highest
possible security of any blasting
system against uncommanded firing
while the WebGen™ unit sleeps in
the blasthole
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2022
WebGen™ Mine Schedule Flexibility
methods and mining techniques,
including enabling the safe passage
of mining equipment and vehicles
over loaded blastholes.
MINE SCHEDULE FLEXIBILITY
The novel method of work enables
the maintenance of parallel mining,
drilling and loading activities,
ultimately increasing the vertical
advance of surface mines.
Orica Chief Technology Officer,
Angus Melbourne said: “The Mine
Schedule Flexibility solution takes
advantage of a unique benefit of
WebGen, a wireless primer loaded in
a stemmed blasthole that is immune
to unplanned detonation from
machines passing over the blasthole”.
“As a result, many safety hazards
and production constraints when
using conventional initiating systems
are removed. With WebGen, we no
January/February 2023 www.
Established
1909
longer have to sterilise loaded blast
patterns, which means we can turn a
loaded blast into a temporary haul
road, allowing customers to optimise
the entire mining process.”
ACCELERATING PRODUCTION
WITH WEBGEN™
By allowing mining equipment to
operate over loaded blastholes,
mines can now reduce operating
constraints and improve vertical
advance. Beyond these productivity
gains, blast loading is also now made
safer by reducing exposure of blast
crews to geotechnical risks.
Following an extensive review
of the technique by Newmont
Boddington, a series of rigorous risk
assessments and change management
workshops with key stakeholders were
conducted. This enabled a compre-
hensive understanding of the
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perception and opinions of workers
who would be experiencing wireless
blasting for the first time. A control
framework, training and procedures
were subsequently delivered to
ensure mine workers could correctly
demarcate, identify, and react to
temporary haul roads over loaded
blasts within the mine operating areas.
In September 2022, Newmont
Boddington and Orica successfully
and safely demonstrated the
temporary haul road in an operating
mine at full scale for the first time,
globally. This maintained the
production circuit while the adjacent
section was drilled and loaded.
www. .com January/February 2023
The haul road remained open to all • Forces exerted by heavy equipment
mining traffic for eight days until tramming.
access was no longer required and • Impact due to a large rockfall.
both sections were fired in a single • Electromagnetic induction from
WebGen™ production blast. trailing cables.
Watch WebGen™ in action here.
HAZARDS CONTROLLED
ELIMINATING MINE • Vehicle interaction with explosives
SCHEDULING HAZARDS during haul road construction or
Once stemmed, wireless blasts have maintenance.
no components near the surface. • Unauthorised activity which breaks Turning a loaded
All explosives are isolated within the into a haul road. blast into
blasthole. This eliminates many of • Adjacent operations, including a safe productive
the hazards of vehicle interactions drilling or excavating into haul haul road with
with explosives that include: road. WebGen™
• High temperature due to a • Impact of excavations on stemming wireless initiating
vehicle fire. cover and blast exclusion zone. system
27
DRILL AND
BLAST
AWARD WINNER

orica.com/4D
 Drill and Blast
4D™ – The New Dimension in Blasting
A single explosive technology with a broader range of energy to suit all hole and geological conditions
O
rica’s new 4D™ bulk explo-
sive system gives blast de-
signers a greater range of
energy choices compared to conven-
tional bulk explosive systems. The ad-
vanced formulation enables users to
better match explosive energy to rock
strength and hole conditions on a hole-
by-hole basis in real time. Reduced
cost, time and environmental impact
and superior blast outcomes are among
the benefits that users will experience
with the proprietary technology.
Central to the innovation is the 4D™
enabled Mobile Manufacturing Unit
(MMU™) which manufactures the
required bulk explosive blend during
delivery. Both pumped and augered
loading methods are supported and the
loading process is managed automati-
cally by Orica’s in-built LOADPlus™
smart control system, ensuring that the
explosive energy is loaded as specified
by the blast designer.
Orica Chief Technology Officer,
Angus Melbourne said: “Our
4D™ matches the
required energy
to suit geology in
real-time
24
2022
4D™ Bulk Explosive Technology
4D technology has been very well
received by the industry as it
continues to unlock greater value
across mining operations by allowing
blast designs to be based on the
energy required for the geology
rather than by powder factor. This
means a huge potential in reducing
explosive consumption and green-
house gases, together with the ability
to better control nitrate leaching and
blast vibration.
“We are so proud of the teams that
sought to combine our best technolo-
gies in developing this solution that
will allow our customers to think
differently, mine more efficiently and
operate more precisely.”
Watch 4D™ in action here.
A WIDER RANGE OF POSSIBILITIES
FOR ENVIRONMENTAL AND
OPERATIONAL NEEDS
With a significantly broadened energy
range of up to 23% increase in energy
for various hard rock applications and
January/February 2023 www.
Established
1909
a 43% reduction in energy for soft
rock applications, the possibilities to
optimise blasting outcomes are
enhanced with 4D™.
Higher bulk strength options will
enable hard rock miners to increase
the energy per bank cubic metre
(BCM) and achieve better fragmenta-
tion without additional drilling or
closing patterns; as well as specifically
target harder ore to improve mill
throughput and recovery. In waste,
drill constrained operations can quickly
improve load and haul productivity
and vertical advance by expanding
drill patterns while maintaining the
same energy per BCM.
Lower bulk strength options to
support more environmentally friendly
operations include waterproof and
water-resistant 4D™ emulsion
products. These support blasting in
fume or vibration sensitive environ-
ments, such as near communities or in
soft ground and wet holes, and offer
better control over nitrate leaching.
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 In 2022, Orica loaded and fired improve product quality control and wirelessly transferred to the MMU™
over 6,000 tonnes of 4D™ bulk assurance. Additionally, with a suite of to streamline blasthole loadings
emulsion in blastholes up to advanced applications that seamlessly according to blast designs, making
48 metres deep across multiple sites interfaces with the BlastIQ™, such as manual input and errors a thing of
in Australia and demonstrated an SHOTPlus™, blast designs can be the past.
average reduction of 7-8% in bulk
explosives, reducing the overall
impact of carbon emissions associ-
ated with blasting.

RIX’S CREEK MINE EXPERIENCES

IMPROVED BLAST OUTCOMES
Bloomfield’s Rix’s Creek mine in the
Hunter Valley, Australia used 4D™ for
its softer ground conditions. The mine
experienced a reduction in cost, with
4D™ enabling a lower powder factor
(tonnes of explosive per cubic metre
of overburden). The accurate
matching of energy to rock hardness
in wet conditions also effectively
reduced vibration and post-blast 4D™ automatically delivers pumped and augered blends to a specified bulk strength based on
fume for the mine. the depth and diameter of the blasthole
Mick Innes, the Drill and Blast
Supervisor at Rix’s Creek, said:
“4D will be a game changer for our
industry in weaker ground conditions
and environmentally sensitive
locations, allowing flexibility to
reduce energy while maintaining
water resistance.”

CONVERGENCE OF INNOVATIVE
TECHNOLOGIES
The 4D™ bulk system is the culmina-
tion of Orica’s advanced range of
technologies, including Orica’s 4D™ enabled MMU™ accurately formulates the required 4D™ energy without the need to
proprietary emulsion chemistry that change product type or raw materials
enables rapid chemical sensitisation
and significantly lower densities to be
achieved or maintained. Orica’s
long-standing fleet of Bulkmaster™
and Pumpmaster™ mobile manufac-
turing units now come with a new
gassing chemical system and an
upgraded LOADPlus™ smart process
control system to ensure accurate and
efficient loading of the required
explosive blends and densities.
The 4D™ enabled MMU™ is also
equipped with Orica’s latest digital
technologies, such as the BlastIQ™
blast optimisation platform which
integrates as-loaded blast data to The convergence of Orica’s technologies powering the revolutionary 4D™ bulk system

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