O-Pitdev – Inclinometer

O-PitDev®, is a technological tool, which allowed us to measure the inclination and depth of the projected holes and compare with the real one. The auditing and use this device, to aid in the optimization process, aiming to reduce the number of blocks generated by the company was already presented in the first part of the article.

With the help of the probe, the holes were audited to analyse whether the values of depth and inclination were in accordance with the real, as shown in the images below;

O-Pitblast® Blast Design Platform 1.5.69.0

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The holes showed good results having their deviation value and depth partially projected with the real one, on this occasion already foreseeing to avoid:

• toe

• coarse fragmentation

• Secondary blasting

• Vibration

• uneven the floor

VANTs (Drone)

In mines both pit and underground types, UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) can provide important information about the state of the area to be blasted while improving the safety of workers.

Drones can access and assess hazardous areas that conventional equipment cannot reach, thus ensuring the safety of personnel and offering numerous benefits in the mining industry.

Using a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone was possible to us to to analyze discontinuities and failures along the free face, also record videos for a better analysis of the bench.

Drones (rotating UAVs) are also capable of hovering on site and thus perform inspection tasks such as an accurate assessment holes in the benches, thus being able to identify these holes and avoid risks at the time of detonation, it also helps in recording blasting for analysis of flyrocks and harmful gases formation.

3D LASER SCAN AND MODELING

Its purpose is to scan the free face and perform a survey of the position of the holes if they are perforated. A quarryman pro is a field instrument that combines laser emission and measurement, and it is a technology with high-speed and automatic scanning, where it can be used for both methods as conventional tool for survey of holes or working as total station, which was the method used for mapping our bench, then its data were exported to O-Pitblast software and generated to 3D modeling, see image of the equipment below.

After surveying the bench and the free face with the 3D laser scan and using the UAV to inspect position of the holes, along with georeferencing by GPS, the geotechnical classification was carried out using the Lilly method, then we analyse the holes that we identified using the drone, together with the 3D modeling within the Software, as shown in the image above.

BLASTING DESIGN AND SIMULATION – O-PITBLAST SOFTWARE

A rock blast simulator allows us to import data from our Inclinometer, 3D Scanner, UAV and Seismograph. With it, is possible to model a blast quickly and share it with others involved on the project by O-Pitcloud, it also generates reports and allows for auditing of the charging through an iOS application.

Some applicability for this software is:

· Drill pattern design

· Charge and timing simulation

· Fragmentation a vibration prediction

With the support of the O-PitSurface, with all the data already inserted, we analysed critical profiles in the front row of the working bench. With the support of the software, drone and O-Pitdev, we were able to define a better inclination for the holes and identified misallocated ones, double checking their actual distance from the free face and determining the correct amount of explosive charge to keep vibration, fragmentation and flyrocks under control.

The images above represent 2 holes and show the actual distance from its position from front of the bench.