The situation

Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) information is vital for providing engineers and operators with essential blasthole state information, supporting informed design decisions and consistent design execution. 

Traditionally, QA/QC data is captured physically on printed paper plans. Operators use these plans to record measurements and comments against drill holes, which are then relayed to the surface Drill and Blast (D&B) engineering team for review before each subsequent step in the drill and blast cycle occurs. 

At all stages, the recorded hole state information is transferred via a physical handover of these printed plans between the operators and the D&B engineering teams. 

As Golden Grove's production levels advance to greater depths and manual delivery of QA/QC data becomes a bottleneck in achieving production targets, it has become imperative to develop innovative methods to record and communicate critical blasting QA/QC information to the D&B engineering team on the surface.

A key concern was the increasing impracticality of delivering paper-based QA/QC information to the surface during the working shift, data quality and its availability. These are crucial for ensuring that final loading designs accurately reflect the measured hole data and that the operational team have access to the most up-to-date and relevant hole state information.

Technical solutions

After the release of BlastIQ™ Underground, the Byrnecut team at Golden Grove engaged with Orica Digital Solutions to evaluate the potential benefits of digitalising their QA/QC processes. 

Orica Digital Solutions proposed a three-month trial of BlastIQ™ Underground to offer a seamless, integrated solution for digitally capturing essential drilling, preparation, and loading QA/QC data.

The BlastIQ™ Underground solution comprised of three core components:

• The BlastIQ™ Underground desktop application which is used to import and export D&B designs from the mine's primary design software and BlastIQ™ Mobile Platform.
• BlastIQ™ Mobile which provides a simple user interface on a Windows mobile device for the underground operators to view the design and input measured data and comments against blast holes.
• BlastIQ™ Insights which is a browser-accessible interface for data management, progress dashboards and applying Tags and Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) for downstream reporting through the BlastIQ™ APIs.

The BlastIQ™ Underground solution allows Golden Grove to improve the efficiency and clarity of capturing critical drilling, preparation, and loading QA/QC data.

To ensure consistent and reliable data flow, the Byrnecut and 29Metals teams received comprehensive training over several short sessions tailored to their roles in using the BlastIQ™ Underground solution.

"BlastIQ Underground has given us the ability to speed up processes and reduce downtime. The collective data from past blasts, firings and preparations, also gives foresight for what's to come. Having that background information and knowledge is of absolute high value for planning and scheduling."

— Tim Hancock, Project Manager, 29Metals

The result

Throughout the trial, 30 production blasts and over 800 hole measurements were successfully recorded. BlastIQ™ Underground's ability to use the site's existing network infrastructure to wirelessly send and receive design and recorded QA/QC data reduced operator travel time by up to 1.5 hours per blast, representing a 75% improvement over the traditional paper-based method and reducing the exposure time of operators travelling up and down the decline. The system was proven to be simple, reliable, and effective.

This wireless transfer of QA/QC information allows the 29Metals D&B engineers based on the surface to access detailed hole-state information within minutes of data upload from the underground operations.

The digital format in which the data is received enables a more efficient process for updating the final design with the recorded actuals within the site's primary design software. 

BlastIQ™ Underground’s online cloud storage database provides the site with a single source repository for design and measured data. This allows access to current and historical design information alongside the actual execution information for real-time review and decision-making. This information also made long-term blasting trends and optimisation opportunities possible. 

"The ability for BlastIQ to digitise and send that information directly to the engineers is really important for us ."

— Scott Prentice, Mine Manager, 29Metals

Orica Digital Solutions wishes to thank 29Metals and Byrnecut for their collaboration, support and permission to publish this case study.

Author: Craig Buchanan