A Study of a Blasting Operation in Open Pit Mine With GPSS/H Simulation Program

Abstract

The economic analysis and the use of explosives is an important part of blasting operations in open pit mining. Explosives are energy and the efficient use of this energy is a major factor in keeping rock blasting costs under control. The degree of fragmentation and movement obtained is directly related to the amount of explosives used in operation and the delay array sequencing of firing blasthole. For economic reasons, blasting must be both well planned and be accurately executed using minimum amount of explosives. If the blast sequence is correct, less explosives will be required at a single time. In this study, a simulation model is developed by using GPSS/H simulation software program for a small open pit mine with 11 blasthole operation drilled out at a given array pattern to determine the out of sequence firing (OOSF) and crowding as ms delays by varying the scatter in mean delay time while assuming a predefined value for crowding as ms delay. The simulation results and the interpretations of them for a given mine site provides the optimal sequencing and the scatter of the selected blasting agent.