Let’s Blast ! - Rare Look Inside an Open-pit Blasting Process

Today let's discover the meticulous process of blasting open mine.

[jackalope]

I did the labor of loading holes as a teenager back in the day during the summer break, unloading ammonium nitrate off trucks and setting them up next to drilled holes, setting the blast up with nitro glycerin and blacking caps then loading ... I thought I was hot shit making 8$an hour getting paid under the table.
It was a great experience, hard work really put the light in my eyes and appreciate my dad's living, plus I couldn't quit because the boss was also my dad.

[glennbrymer]

Very nice. Thank you for giving the regular people a peek into the world of blasting. The video was very well done.
Labor intensive work it is!
I'm an old doodle bugger.
Shooting holes looking for oil.
I loved seeing charges go off.

[MarsFKA]

In 1969/70 I worked at the Koolanooka open-cast mine in Western Australia. By mining standards of the time, it wasn't a large operation, but the midday and 5 pm blasts were always memorable. The mine workshop was a bit over a kilometre away from the pit and the blasts usually shook the dust out of the rafters.
The biggest bang while I was there was 94 holes and really rattled our fillings. Later, I saw the car belonging to one of the engineers. It had a huge dent in front of the windscreen, which was still intact, and I could reach under the windscreen and put my hand on the dashboard. He told me that he was in the car at the pit, watching the bang from a safe distance, and saw a rock flying towards him out of the dust cloud. He thought it might hit him, so he rapidly reversed thirty metres and the bloody rock *did* hit him.

[louismiller]

When I was a kid we use to buy a stick of dynamite for 25 cents caps were 10 cents and the fuse was 3 cents a foot, me and my buddies use to play war with it, that was before all the crazy people came along .

[dangeary]

When I was working in a quarry, there finally came the day that we had to blast straight down into the floor for the next level.
Rocks went straight up into the air!

[johndelaney]

I remember about 12-15 years ago, I watched a video very similar to this where they basically took a ridge like this, but about the length and width of a football field. The video showed the machines come in, bore the blast hole, the engineers come and set up the explosives (my son didn't realize that not all explosives are shaped like dynamite sticks or C-4 blocks) and when all was set up, an old school plunger generator was used to set off the explosion-the whole area rose up about 6' and then dropped about 4' from its start and a huge cloud of dust took several minutes to blow away.... VERY satisfying to watch...

[gordonpasha]

In Italy we cannot use bulk ANFO, it must be packaged as cartridge and is expensive as other explo. For outdoor excavation we use varnish slurry in cartridge, dynamite, detacord and electric caps. For underground excavations, road tunnels mainly, slurry and micro-delayed detonators

[mickeyreed]

Thanks for showing this! I was a aggregate inspector for Illinois Dept. of Transportation.

I spent a number of years at limestone quarries in my area. I loved being in the quarries.

Retired now but, this really takes me back. I miss it!

[davidcadman]

When I started public school, was in a one room school house. A corner of the building had off colour brick work. I later learned that a few years before, the older kids had stole some dynamite from one of their father's (a farmer) shed, and set it beside the school thinking that it would blow the building. They didn't know enough about blasting, so it only damaged the wall. But did they get in shit. LOL.
Later, while still before high school, I watched while a neighbour blew a stump, over 5 ft wide (this was in the 50's when there were still trees that size from old growth). Then the government brought in laws about storing and who could own blasting material.

[larrymullins]

An anfo truck blew up here in Western Australia a few months back . 1 of the wheels on the trailer caught fire . The driver stopped the load in the middle of nowhere and disconnected the truck and drove away. 1 big boom later and the road section and trailer were gone ...

[jackiesanders]

I was a Service tech for the Gardner Denver Large blast hole drills, GD 120, GD 75, Gd 100.back in the 70's /80's. Like your video

[cribbsprojects]

Thanks for sharing the process. Nice filming!

[peteengard]

The quarry I worked at had the anfo trucked in in a tanker and it was pumped in the holes. Nice shot there. Must be a 30 foot wall they shot.

[afnDavid]

I worked at a stone quarry in Florida in the 80's. There were so many safety violations I left the place after 4 months.

[chestermartinez]

I remember when I worked in the road construction, we made the same procedure, very interesting .

[heinzfissimatent]

What we also liked to use for our explosions was the gunpowder from discarded machine gun ammunition. We collected tons of MG belts at the US Army training area and sawed open the cartridges and collected the powder.

[rollingthunder]

Reminds me of when being interviewed by a phycologist in Armageddon, Rock Hound explains why he drills: "...Why do I do this? Because the money's good, the scenery changes and they let me use explosives, ok?"

[jakeforrest]

I like how the detonator is the final thing they connect !

[SJR_Media_Group]

*_Most people only see the 'button' being pushed and thousands of tons of rock blown up_*

Many variables determine final effects of blasting; diameter of hole, depth of hole, angle of hole, spacing of holes, types of booster charge, type of blasting cap, delays of blasting caps, type of main explosive charge, and type of tamping. When everything goes right, rock is fractured enough to minimize primary crushing.

[jasonjamrs]

In Australia we have big pump trucks to fill the hole