Modern Mining April 2022

COVER STORY

AECI Mining Explosives – concentrating To help create a sustainable future for the mining sector and its customers, AECI Mining Explosives focuses on continuous improvement throughout the value chain. Mining is necessary to supply the minerals required to create everything from roads to digital device screens and silicon chips. However, it needs to be undertaken responsibly. According to Franky Botha, product portfolio manager at AECI Mining Explosives, increased regulation in the sector over the past few years has improved aspects such as safety, governance, inclusivity, and sustainability.

B otha says the mining explosives industry has also evolved significantly over this period and the focus at AECI Mining Explosives is to improve efficiency at every stage of the value chain. This ensures a safer and more sustainable sector. “I’ve been with AECI for more than 30 years and one of the biggest changes I’ve seen is the

discontinuation of nitro-glycerine, which people know as ‘dynamite’. While it was excellent from a blasting point of view, it was unsafe to handle and store. Many people don’t know that more than 80% of our blasting products only become explosive once they are in the hole, whether for surface or under ground blasting,” Botha says. Better Mining While there’s an ongoing race within the explosives industry to achieve better blasting performances and results, Botha says this is just one piece of the puzzle – the biggest gains (financial and environmental) are unlocked when focusing on continuous improve ment at every stage of the value chain. For example, he says that improving blast design can cut down on everything from fuel usage to the number of truckloads required to move material (by up to 15%), resulting in cost reductions, lower carbon emissions, and time saving. “Blasting is an art. If done optimally, it has the potential to create substantial savings throughout the downstream value chain, as well as major envi ronmental benefits,” he says. “We work with our customers to help them get the maximum return out of every blast. Achieving the ideal fragmenta tion directly impacts load and haul, and the dilution or loss of quality grade material, which needs to be managed to improve handling and processing time.” AECI Mining Explosives has developed several innovative solutions to help customers meet their operational and ESG goals. These include:  Incorporating recycled oil into explosive formula tions: AECI Mining Explosives embarked on an initiative to replace virgin oil with recycled oil in our manufacturing process and create a closed loop system. In recent years we took this initiative further and offered a value add to our customers where used oils from the mine trucks’ gearboxes, maintenance yards, MMUs, tractors and forklifts etc., can be brought to the AECI site and reworked into the emulsion manufacturing process.  Differential GPS ( d GPS): This is part of the AECI Mining Explosives IntelliShot system. d GPS assists to eliminate the human element component in blast hole identification and delay assignment adding to blasting safety and accuracy. Incorrectly marked blast holes result in incorrect blast timing,

Differential GPS.

14  MODERN MINING  April 2022