Modern Mining July 2023

COVER STORY

Spearheading technology and innovation advances in mining explosives sector

Innovation and technological development have been an essential component of business strategy in every sector across the globe. Mining is no exception. Technological progression is yielding far reaching improvements in safety, sustainability and operational efficiency throughout the value chain. In South Africa, and globally, AECI Mining Explosives is celebrated for being at the forefront of innovation.

systems that are aligned to inherently safe design principles.” Inherent safety Pillay explains that inherently safe design principles span the entire product range. This ensures there is no compromise and, as a result, all our electronic initiation systems and detonators benefit from the same intrinsically safety features,” he says. The company has tested its electronics exten sively. “As an example, we’ve subjected them to high voltage, which simulated a lightning strike. This resulted in uninitiated detonators due to the designed protective circuitry. We’ve ensured by design that our detonators are only initiated by our control equipment,” he explains. AECI Mining Explosives is thrilled to announce a further development in its extensive electronic initiation systems offering. The DigiShot® Ranger has been purposely designed to cater for smaller mines, quarries and civil blasting operations. In line with inherently safe design principles, the DigiShot® Ranger’s built-in long-range antenna enables the system to transmit a safe encrypted blasting signal up to 3 km away from the blast as long as there’s a line of sight maintained. This affords the user options

T he company continues to invest significant money and resources into research and devel opment (R&D) in its quest to assist the mining industry to achieve better blasting outcomes. “We pride ourselves on developing innovative solutions in the initiating systems and commer cial explosives space. That’s how we remain at the forefront of technology and constantly pursue sustainability and continuous improvement,” says Ashlin Pillay, Product Portfolio Manager – Electronic Initiation Systems at AECI Mining Explosives. “With over 30 years of experience in pioneering the electronic delay detonator industry and devel oping class-leading blast initiation technologies, AECI Mining Explosives possesses some of the most talented minds delivering robust and reliable

The DigiShot ® Ranger in action.

to blast remotely if required. As a result, fewer people are close a potentially hazardous area during blasting times. Considering that mines are constantly faced with the safety and wellbeing of their people, employing AECI’s DigiShot® Ranger is a certain way of mitigating risk. “We’ve been working tirelessly to improve our offering for mid-tier open cast mines, civil blasting activity and quar rying operations. The original DigiShot® system is a reputable and accomplished product. However, advancement in technology allows us to better sup port modern-day customer and system requirements,” says Pillay. “The lessons we have learned from the DigiShot® system have been engineered onto a technologically advanced platform con currently integrating new technology, data and third-party requirements to cre ate the DigiShot® Ranger.” Building on strong foundations Pillay adds that the DigiShot® Ranger works with AECI’s fourth-generation

8  MODERN MINING  July 2023