Improve the quality of your Open Cut Mining Practices
6/3/2016 : The iguana benchm8 8550 automated hole dipping tool is an innovative breakthrough in on bench data capture. It is the only hole dipper to combine the measurement of hole depth and automatic logging of these measurements. This removes the opportunity for data entry errors and simplifies the process of closing the loop in drill and blast operations. In addition to this the 8550 hole dipping tool has features that make water depth measurement much easier. Hole depth measurements are recorded in an easy to work with csv format and accessible via the USB interface on the benchm8 8550 device. When connected via USB to a computer, the 8550 device appears as a standard USB flash storage device which makes accessing the data files simple and convenient.
The benchm8 8550 device is part of the suite of open pit mining process improvement solutions that Iguana Industrial Solutions offers. This ranges from data collection using automated tools through to PDA and tablet based solutions for open pit mining. These are focused on delivering a customer centric set of solutions to improve blast loading. Accuracy and accountability in the blast loading process hinge first and foremost on knowing the hole depth of the drilled holes. In addition, the presence of water and the depth of water require an accurate water depth measurement. With this information, the drill and blast engineer or shot firer can make the right decisions about the explosives to use in the blast hole.
Typical operations use a dipping tape or tape measure to measure the hole depth if this is done at all. The hole depth measured is then typically written down. It then has to be manually entered into a computer to allow this data to be used to modify the drilling and blasting plans. Typical open cast mining operations find this too slow a process and as such this data is often not collected at all. This can result in costly errors in the open pit mining operations.
The availability of timely and accurate hole depth data and water depth measurement cannot be achieved with simply a dipping tape. Hole dipping requires an optimised hole dipper such as the Iguana Industrial Solutions benchm8 8550. Designed to work in the rigours of open cut mining, the benchm8 8550 hole dipper has been designed to improve your drill and blast operations. Get measurable improvements in your drilling and blasting processes. Open cut mining is more than ever, dependant on process accuracy and efficiency in blast loading. Open pit mining and open cast mining efficiency can be improved by accurate knowledge of the hole depth of the blast hole.
About the author:
Peter has worked as an engineer for 20 years. Half of this has been around mining equipment and data systems.