Modern Mining August 2018

PRODUCT News

South Africa-based explosives leader BME reports it has taken another important step in internationalising its footprint by supplying its market leading AXXIS elec- tronic detonators to customers in the United States. According to BME Managing Director Joe Keenan, the company is already active BME expands into US explosives market with shipments of AXXIS detonators to customers in Atlanta and Texas, and the introduction of a number of BME’s other products and services is soon to follow. “Our range of highly stable emulsion formulations has also been approved by the necessary authorities, and these will soon be available to the US market,” said Keenan. “We expect considerable inter- est from users and distributors alike as we unveil our offerings to this market.”

markets,”he said. “Our immediate plans for the US market are to establish and develop our distribution network for the AXXIS sys- tem and emulsion explosives – to develop customer relationships in mining, quarry- ing and construction.” BME’s emulsion products – which have been developed over the past three decades and have proved highly success- ful – will be toll manufactured in the US to BME’s specifications. The company’s emul- sion technology, production capacity and customer service culture has made it one of the largest explosives supplier to Africa’s opencast mining sector. BME’s AXXIS system – which has built a strong customer base in the mining sec- tors of Africa and Australia especially – has been behind the world’s largest surface blasts, measured by the number of elec- tronic detonators fired in a single blast. At Zambia’s Kansanshi mine – the largest cop- per mine in Africa – 6 690 electronic delay detonators were successfully initiated in one blast last year using AXXIS. BME, website www.bme.co.za

He highlighted that much of the antici- pated initial demand is likely to come from large existing customers who have good experience of working with BME in Africa and Australia – and who also have opera- tions in the US which could benefit from BME’s offerings. Providing a base for BME’s US presence is its recently opened offices in Denver, Colorado. “We expect that the powerful features of the AXXIS system and its user-friendly interface are going to prove as attractive to this new market as they are in our existing

Joseph Keenan, BME’s MD, displays elements of the AXXIS system.

64  MODERN MINING  August 2018