The Enaex Africa team at United Manganese of Kalahari (UMK) recently achieved an exceptional milestone by carrying out a record Synchroblast™at UMK’s Russik Mine in the Northern Cape. Not only has UMK set a new record for the highest number of detonators fired in a single blast in South Africa (3,618 units), they have also connected the highest number of detonators – 1,469 units – to a single DaveyTronic® Blast Driver (DBD). The maximum number of detonators that can be connected to a DBD is 1,500 units. The DBD enables wireless (remote) communications to the DaveyTronic Remote Blaster (DRB2), which is used to control, test and ultimately fire the DaveyTronic detonators.
The block that was blasted consisted primarily of calcrete. The charging of blast holes commenced on 22 June 2020 and was completed on 6 July 2020. The blast took place on Wednesday, 8 July 2020 while the detonator programming was carried out on 6/7 July 2020.
What makes this achievement even more impressive says Enaex Africa is the fact that there were no leakages identified with any of the DaveyTronic detonators with 100% reliability in system communication. The fragmentation was excellent, the customer is ecstatic about the results and most importantly, it was done safely.
According to UMK General Manager, Tribe Bhengu: “The Enaex team is always committed to helping UMK reaching their daily and monthly production goals.” This achievement says Enaex Africa, in many ways underscores the importance of collaboration and planning, which are principles that both companies share. “Collaboration and planning require listening from all levels of the organisation, leaders, managers, employees, suppliers and service providers. Key stakeholders must agree on the set of goals to align around and track priorities. When all stakeholders have input on goals, they are more likely to take responsibility for implementation.”
The UMK management, under the stewardship of Bhengu, “has been exemplary in showing how collaboration, planning and patience, because achieving such goals takes more time, can be a catalyst for success.” Francisco Baudrand, CEO of Enaex Africa added,“We are immensely proudto achieve this milestone in UMK’s mine. We will be working hard in order to provide premium blasting solutions, increase safety and productivity, with fast responsiveness and tailor-made solutions, which is our value proposition to our customers. Enaex is proud to be associated with a partner like UMK. Over the past five years, our two companies have managed to forge an extraordinarily strong relationship underpinned by mutually shared values and principles. It thus comes as no surprise that such a record achievement was attained at the UMK mine. We look forward to more further collaborations as we both extract value from each other’s success.”
Some pertinent information regarding the blast is as follows:
- Hole depth: 10 m
- Detonators per hole: 1
- Number of holes: 3,618
- Number of detonators: 3,618
- DaveyTronic Electronic Detonators (15 m lengths, M75)
- Number of boosters: 3,618 x 400 g boosters
- Explosives tonnages: 802 t E6000P (blend of Bulk Emulsion and Ammonium Nitrate Prill)
- BUSLINE: 48 reels of 500 m each (24 km)
- Number of DBD’: 3
- DaveyTronic hardware version: Evolution Pack 36
- Number of firing lines: 12
- Blasted material: 423,921 BCMs/1,102,195 t of calcrete
Enaex’s subsiadiary in Africa is a JV with Sasol and is described as “a world-class blasting services company delivering premium solutions to the most important mining regions and companies in Africa, with over 1,100 employees who provide blasting services to various mining sites in sub-Saharan Africa.”
Enaex is a famous explosive and blasting company founded in 1920 in Chile. With a century of experience in ammonium nitrate production, explosives production and blasting services it is one of the few explosives companies in the world that can produce and offer the entire spectrum of solutions to execute an integrated blasting process. The company has subsidiaries in eleven countries, including Brazil, France (Davey Bickford), the US and Australia, and exports to more than 50 countries all over the world. Enaex provides blasting services to some of the major mining companies in the world, such as Anglo American, BHP, Codelco, KGHM, Glencore, Vale, Yamana Gold and Teck Resources.
Enaex Africa includes a bulk emulsion plant in Secunda and an ammonium nitrate fuelling plant in Rustenburg where the JV partners produce their trade name Expanfo. They also supply ammonium nitrate prill and packaged explosives to the market. Non-electronic detonators and accessories are sourced locally from SDN in Ekandustria. Electronic detonators are imported from the Enaex affiliate in France, Davey Bickford Enaex. Enaex (in association with Sasol)is the sole distributor of the DaveyTronic range of electronic detonators in Africa.
