Open pit mine blast - GIF

[Altair]

Open pit mine blast.




Previously:

Mine blasts viewed from above - GIFs
Mine blast dust suppression trucks - GIF
Open pit mine blast - GIF
Huge mine blast - GIF
Demolishing a canal wall - GIF

[hemmjo]

Anyone here involved in that kind of work? How long would it take to set all of those charges?

[rgsparber]

Blasting like this was used to cut a V in South Mountain in Phoenix to make way for the 202 South Mountain Highway. It was a much smaller area but the blasted every weekday for a year. They would drill a series of holes in the rock, fill with a liquid explosive, and set charges in less than a day. Each blast was filmed at a high speed so they could identify and failed charges. A full size mining truck would move the broken rock away. The V was just deep enough to build ramps on each side for the roadbed. this is a great example of applied math in action.

Rick

[cubcouper]

I wrote some software for tracking the explosives used by some big Wyoming coal mines. For them, the drill and prep for a blast on that order only takes about two weeks. The engineering and planning much longer. They average 2-4 smaller blasts (30-75 holes each) every day and on average blow up about 7 million pounds of explosives each month!

[hemmjo]

Fascinationto to watch. It appears that some of the "holes" create a much larger blast than others. Is this perhaps an error in the charge size in that location.

Or perhaps something done on purpose just for some fun, or for visual effect. This video for example it seems the last charge was different that the ones before it.
Open pit mine blast - GIF. Very impressive

[Tooler2]

I bought a table saw from a guy in Malartic Quebec whose business was turning wooden plugs to put on top of the charges. They used local poplar and had a hard time getting enough wood to keep up with demand. He had three full time turners. There is a visitor's observation deck to see into the huge pit.