OPEN PIT BLAST DESIGN

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OBJECTIVES
 To become familiar with Surpac’s Open Pit Blast Design tools.
 To design various open pit blasts using regular and staggered grids, pre-split
holes, and ramp blasts.

FILES USED
Files used in this lab exercise are found in the following folder:

C:\OP_BLAST_DESIGN.LAB\

DISCUSSION
The Open Pit blast design module in Surpac consists of very specific tools for the design,
planning, and reporting of the various types of blasts that may occur in Open pit mines. The blast
design module allows you to create and charge vertical and inclined holes in rectangular patterns,
along segments, or in a straight line between any two points digitized on the screen. The drilling
parameters which need to be defined include:

 pattern type (rectangular or staggered)

 hole numbering (regular or zig-zag)
 burden (distance between rows)
 spacing (distance between holes in a row)
 collar position (set at an elevation or to a DTM)
 hole length (set at a given length, elevation, or to a DTM)
 bearing (also referred to as azimuth)
 dip
 diameter
 pattern name
 hole name (including optional prefix, suffix, and also padded with zeros)

Blasting parameters which need to be addressed include:

 depth of stemming (rock chips, dirt, or other non-explosive material placed on top of the
charge)
 charge interval (multiple charge intervals separated by stemming are allowed)
 explosive name
 explosive SG (specific gravity, or density of explosive)
 detonator name
 delay name
 delay time (in milliseconds)
 charge depth can be automatically adjusted to hole depth

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Designing Blasts

Rectangular Blasts: Two types of blast patterns

may be created: a rectangular or staggered pattern.
Staggering a blast pattern has no effect on drilled
burden and spacing, but is useful in creating
echelon-sequenced patterns. The follow diagram
displays the two kinds of rectangular blast patterns
that can be used:

Rectangular Staggered

The following diagram shows the two numbering patterns that can be used for
numbering of the blast holes in a particular blast: regular or zig-zag.

Regular Zig-Zag

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Pre-split Blasts: Pre-split blast holes are drilled at relatively close spacing along a
planned fracture plane. Pre-split blasts are used to break the rock to form certain
features such as a curve in a pit wall or a ramp. Surpac can create pre-split holes along
a straight line, or along a segment

Figure 1: Pre-split blast holes around a curve in the pit wall.

Figure 2: Pre-split blast holes following the pit wall and extending down to a desired
ramp design.

Sub-Drilling: Sub-drilling, that is, drilling below the floor of the lower bench, can be
achieved in Surpac by using a simple method. You must move the DTM to which you are
extending the drilling down the amount of sub-drilling. For example, if you are to sub-drill
1m, then a new surface equal to the current pit surface must be created. This new
surface, however, must be moved downward 1m. The purpose of this is to have a
surface to which you can extend the blast holes and that will take into account the sub-
drilling depth.

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 Figure 3: Typical profile of a bench blast design showing inclination of holes and sub
drilling.

Blast Hole Nomenclature: The following table provides examples blast hole
names that can be automatically assigned by different combinations and
permutations of the blast hole naming parameters:

Hole ID Hole ID Starting Pad Pad Pad

Examples
Prefix Suffix Value Hole_id Length Character
       
1 No 1, 2, 3
     
A 1 No A1, A2, A3
   
940- Rc 1 No 940-1rc, 940-2rc, 940-3rc
 
bh- 1 Yes 3 0 bh-001, bh-002, bh-003
 
N_ 201 Yes 4 x N_x201, N_x202, N_x203
 
Bh 8 Yes 2 0 08bh, 09bh, 10bh
     
RC 901 No RC901, RC902,RC903

Charging Blast Holes: Once a blast has been designed, you may continue further with
the process by assigning explosive charges to the holes. Any blast holes designed in
Surpac may be charged according to the user’s specifications. These charging data may
then be uploaded to a blast database for reporting and calculations. In Surpac the
following charging parameters can be user-defined:

1. Explosives name (e.g.: ANFO)

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2. Explosives density

3. Delay name

4. Delay time (e.g.: 25 ms)

5. Detonator name (e.g.: Nonel LP)

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ASSIGNMENT
1. Create four blast designs:
I. Rectangular pattern at 48m elevation clipped by one of the segments in the
file “zones40.str”. Sub drill the blast holes 1m.
II. Staggered pattern at 48m elevation clipped by one of the segments in the file
“zones40.str”. Sub drill the blast holes 1m.
III. Pre-split blast along the pit wall crest at the 48m elevation.
IV. Pre-split blast along the ramp crest.
2. Create a plot of all four blast designs.
3. Charge all four blast designs with Stemming at the collar (1m), and ANFO (0.8) in the rest
of the hole.

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USEFUL TOOLBAR ICONS
BLAST DESIGN
Create rectangular blast pattern
Design line of blast holes
Design blast holes along segment
Design single blast hole
Complete unextended hole
Assign new hole ID’s
Upload holes to database
Modify charge defaults
Charge all holes
Charge holes inside digitized box
Charge holes inside digitized segment
Charge holes inside existing segment
Charge single hole
Uncharge all holes
Uncharge holes inside digitized box
Uncharge holes inside digitized segment
Uncharge holes inside existing segment
Uncharge single hole
Delete all holes
Delete a group of holes
Delete single hole
Delete all unextended holes
Delete holes inside a digitized box
Delete holes outside a digitized box
Delete holes inside a digitized segment
Delete holes outside a digitized segment
Delete holes inside an existing segment
Delete holes outside a existing segment

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PROCDURE
1. Create four blast designs:
I. Rectangular pattern at 48m elevation clipped by one of the segments in
the file “zones40.str”. Sub drill the blast holes 1m.
a. From the Navigator click and drag the file zones40.str into the viewport
to open it.
b. From the Blast Design toolbar choose the button to create a
rectangular blast pattern.
c. A prompting message will appear asking you to “Select area for
blasting holes”.
d. Click and drag to define a rectangle in the area shown in the following
diagram:

e. Hit the F2 key to apply and accept the defined rectangle.

f. Fill the subsequent form as follows. Please note that the values in the
fields Origin X, Origin Y, Grid Height, Grid Width, & Grid Angle will be
different for your selected rectangle:

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g. A prompting message will appear asking you to “Select a closed
segment to clip the holes”. Click the segment in the lower right-hand
corner as in the following diagram:

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 Click here to select
this segment

II. Staggered pattern at 48m elevation clipped by one of the segments in

the file “zones40.str”. Sub drill the blast holes 1m.
a. From the Blast Design toolbar choose the button to create a
rectangular blast pattern.
b. A prompting message will appear asking you to “Select area for
blasting holes”.
c. Click and drag to define a rectangle in the area shown in the following
diagram:

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d. Hit the F2 key to apply and accept the defined rectangle.
e. Fill the subsequent form as follows. Please note that the values in the
fields Origin X, Origin Y, Grid Height, Grid Width, & Grid Angle will be
different for your selected rectangle:

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f. A prompting message will appear asking you to “Select a closed
segment to clip the holes”. Click the segment in the lower left-hand
corner as in the following diagram:

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 Click here to select
this segment

III. Pre-split blast along the pit wall crest at the 48m elevation.
a. From the Blast Design toolbar choose the button to design blast
holes along segment.
b. A prompting message will appear asking you to “Select the starting
position and drag to the end of selection”.
c. Click and drag from the first point in the following diagram to the
second point:

Click and drag from here

Drag to here

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d. Fill the subsequent form as follows. Note that the Line Length value
may be different than yours:

e. A prompting message will appear asking you to “Select the target

segment”. Click to select the toe segment, as in the following diagram:

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 Click the toe
segment as the
target

IV. Pre-split blast along the ramp crest.

a. From the Blast Design toolbar choose the button to design blast
holes along segment.
b. A prompting message will appear asking you to “Select the starting
position and drag to the end of selection”.
c. Click and drag from the first point in the following diagram to the
second point:

Click and drag from here

Drag to here

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d. Fill the subsequent form as follows. Note that the Line Length value
may be different than yours:

e. A prompting message will appear asking you to “Select the target

segment”. Click to select the toe segment of the ramp as in the
following diagram:

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 Select the toe
of the ramp as
the target

2. Create a plot of all four blast designs.

a. Make sure the view is plan by clicking the button.
b. From the toolbar click the button to start AutoPlot.
c. Fill the subsequent forms as follows. Note that the scale values on the right hand
side may be different from your values, so you will have to select an appropriate
scale for the A3 size sheet of paper:

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d. Upon applying the previous form, a dashed box will appear centered around your
data in the graphics viewport. This box represents the paper you’ve chosen.
The prompting message asks you to “Move/Rotate selection box. Apply to
continue. Assist key to rescale box.” With the left mouse button click and drag to
move the box. With the right mouse button click and drag to rotate the box about
the lower, left corner. Hitting the F1 key (assist key) will rescale the view if
you’ve move the box partly outside the current view. Hitting the F2 key (apply)
will apply the changes you’ve made. Just hit the F2 key to apply and continue.
e. Fill the subsequent form as follows:

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 f. Once Surpac has finished processing the plot it will let you know with a message
in the message window at the bottom of the screen: “Processing finished - plot
file is maingraa.pf”. It may also open the file automatically in the Plot File
Viewer, which is a separate little program solely for viewing plot files.

3. Charge all four blast designs with Stemming at the collar (1m), and ANFO (0.8) in
the rest of the hole.
a. From the Blast design toolbar, choose the button to charge all holes.
b. Fill the subsequent form as follows:

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