REDUCING DRILL AND BLAST COST THROUGH BLAST OPTIMISATION – A CASE STUDY

Authors

  • Bright Oppong Afum University of Mines and Technology (UMaT)
  • Victor Amoako Temeng University of Mines and Technology (UMaT)

Keywords:

Fragmentation, Kuz-Ram, BCM, Drill and Blast Cost, Cost Savings

Abstract

This paper studied the current cost trends associated with the drill and blast operations of Golden Star Resources, an open pit gold mine in Ghana, and further developed a suitable, cost-effective drill and blast geometric parameters for the mine. The study was conducted on three operational pits of the mine, namely Blocks A, B and C. The surface mine was challenged with high cost trends in its drilling and blasting operations. The current and two proposed sets of blast geometric parameters for each active pit, for ore and waste zones, were assessed with the Kuz-Ram fragmentation model. The estimated mean fragment size for the proposed blast parameters were within the desired fragment size range (25 – 65 cm) of the mine, and explosive energy was effectively utilised per in-situ material blasted. The estimated total volume of in-situ material blasted using the proposed blast parameters increased by 14.3 to 50.0% for ore zones and 12.5 to 50.0% for waste zones over current blast parameters. The estimated total drill and blast cost savings if the proposed blast parameters were adopted ranged from 5.3 to 12.2% for ore zones and 2.9 to 14.8% for waste zones.

Author Biographies

Bright Oppong Afum, University of Mines and Technology (UMaT)

Bright Oppong Afum is an Assist. Lecturer in the Mining Engineering Department at the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT). He holds BSc Mining Engineering and MSc Environmental Monitoring and Analysis degrees from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), and Aberystwyth University, UK respectively. He worked at AEL Mining Services as a Mining Engineer/Site Supervisor and African Underground Mining Services (AUMS) as a Mining/Projects Engineer at the Kinross Inc. Chirano Site. He is a member of the Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (MSME) and the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (MAusIMM). He is currently a PhD researcher at UMaT, with specialty in Explosives and Blasting, Environmental Monitoring and Analysis, Operations Research, Alluvial, Surface and Underground Mining.

Victor Amoako Temeng, University of Mines and Technology (UMaT)

Victor A. Temeng is an Associate Professor in Mining Engineering and the Dean of the School of Postgraduate Studies at the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa. He obtained his BSc (Hons.) and Postgraduate Diploma in Mining Engineering degrees from UMaT in 1985 and 1986 respectively. He obtained his MSc degree from the University of Zambia in 1992 and his PhD degree from the Michigan Technological University, USA in 1997. He joined UMaT as a Lecturer in 1990. He is a member of the Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (MSME) and a member of the Ghana Institution of Engineers (GhIE) His areas of specialisation include Operations Research, Materials Handling and Computer Applications.

References

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Published

2015-12-17

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 2 (2015): Ghana Mining Journal December Issue

Section

Mining Eng. Articles

License

Copyright © 2021 University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa. Ghana