TUCSON, ARIZONA, OCTOBER 19, 2015 – Take designed drill patterns and convert them into engineered blast designs with Version 2 of HxM Blast, released by Hexagon Mining. The addition of the much-anticipated charge and tie-in functionality is the latest in a series of improvements to the product, which brings precision and dependability to one of mining’s most challenging steps.
By integrating departments that previously had little to no improvement mechanisms, HxM Blast allows you to monitor and adjust a blast from design through to implementation. It can be used in Atlas or Planner for reserve calculations and scheduling. It also provides features to validate and improve the entire blasting process. Feedback and monitoring can now be directly used to continuously improve the blasting process, creating smarter designs.
The integration of Leica’s J2drill format now allows designs to be exported as flat file to the Jigsaw fleet management system or any other Drill Fleet Management System. Once drilled, the actual locations can be loaded and updated against designed locations. This benefits the charging process and helps to adjust the blast design based on the actual hole location. It also provides a safety mechanism to avoid drilling ‘bootlegs’ or drilling into possible misfires from the bench above.
The introduction of charging allows holes within a pattern to be attributed with explosive information. This is supported by a configurable consumable library, where blasting consumables and related properties can be entered and managed. Once supplied, the consumables, namely explosives, detonators, delays, cord, booster, and stemming, can be selectively used to create custom blasting templates.
Once the blast has been charged, you can visualize and animate the timing contours directly in MineSight in order to further optimize fragmentation, control the blast movement, and minimize dilution.
Costings and details of the shot can be tracked and reported directly within the application via integrated ARC (Advanced Reporting and Charting) reporting.
HxM Blast continues to integrate with other supporting technologies and is set to receive Measure While Drilling (MWD) information from J2drill. This will allow information from the drill rig, such as the rock hardness, to be used to interpret different geologic units or seams. Such information can be fed back into HxM Blast to make a smarter blasting plan.
About Hexagon Mining
Hexagon Mining is the only company to solve surface and underground challenges by integrating design, planning, and operations technologies for safer, more productive mines. Headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, with more than 30 offices across five continents, the company is a dynamic network of talented mining professionals delivering technology, service, and support.
Hexagon Mining unites industry leaders MineSight, Leica Geosystems Mining, Devex Mining, and SAFEmine. Together they seamlessly link mine planning, mine operations, and mine safety products for a comprehensive flow of data across all operations.
Hexagon Mining is part of Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B; www.hexagon.com), a leading global provider of information technologies that drive quality and productivity improvements across geospatial and industrial enterprise applications. Learn more at hexagonmining.com.