Maxam, a company focused on energetic materials, has announced the launch of X-Energy, an industry-first, integrated blasting service, which uses selective energy application in a fully digitalized mine cycle. It combines advanced explosives technology (Maxam’s Smart Rioflex) with a set of digital tools for optimized blast design and execution, integrated in Maxam Blast Center.
The X-Energy application allows a mine to customize the design and execution of each individual blast and integrate it with the requirements of downstream operations. The benefits include better safety, optimized rock fragmentation, more efficient energy use, and reduced costs for mines, the company said.
“Thanks to its tailor-made, modular nature, X-Energy allows to develop a customized solution for each operation. It allows the selective application of the explosive energy according to the rock properties, resulting in clear sustainable savings to our customers,” Vicente Huelamo, Maxam’s chief technology officer, said in a press release.
Maxam’s Smart Rioflex technology can instantaneously adjust the explosive density to match to a wide range of rock mass conditions. Its mechanical sensitization makes sure that the exact product quantity required at the right stemming length has been loaded.
Maxam Blast Center is a cloud-based platform, which enables full digitalization of blasting services. It integrates a full range of the company’s digital tools to design, plan and conduct the most efficient drilling and blasting operation, with selective energy application based on rock characteristics. The Blast Center is intended to include third-party data for downstream impact tracking and optimization.
Other modules within the X-Energy application include Rioblast, a blast design and simulation suite which integrates measurement data during drilling; FMS (a fleet management system) to plan, control and optimize operations; FDL (a field data logger); and Riotronic X+, an electronic initiation system and detonator to produce a broad range of precisely timed blasts.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)