Orica Digital Solutions has announced the launch of Next Gen SHOTPlus™, a groundbreaking evolution leading drill and blast into the next era with intelligent blast design and modelling capabilities, at MINExpo 2024 in Las Vegas.

For 35 years, the SHOTPlus suite of applications has been a leader in intuitive and powerful digital workflows. Developed by drill and blast professionals, for drill and blast professionals; to effectively improve designs and achieve optimal outcomes, SHOTPlus has become a mainstay across the mining and quarrying and construction industries, according to Orica.

Leveraging market-leading design tools and predictive modelling capability, Orica Digital Solutions are equipping drill and blast professionals with the tools they need to quantify the impact of engineering decisions on drill and blast outcomes and the associated downstream impacts in near real-time, eliminating guess work from the drill and blast process, the company says.

Senior Vice President Orica Digital Solutions, Rajkumar Mathiravedu, said: “Next Gen SHOTPlus empowers drill and blast engineers to move beyond descriptive drill and blast design so they can design, model and optimise for the best outcome. Engineers can easily share blast models and predicted outcomes with multiple stakeholders, allowing for collaborative assessment of the highest value blast design, in the context of the entire mining value chain.”

Powered by the Orica Digital Solutions Platform, Next Gen SHOTPlus unlocks the power of the Model Through Time; a cloud hosted, spatiotemporal, digital replica, Orica says. Representing customers digital mine through space and time, providing a dynamic, data-driven replica of their mining operations enabling real-time tracking and storage of spatial data for enhanced and collaborative blast design and modelling. The collaborative nature of the Model Through Time enables in-app design-review capabilities for managing drill and blast approvals within Next Gen SHOTPlus.

Incorporating Orica Digital Solutions’ proprietary physics engine, Helfire Damage Model and Advanced Vibration Management solution, Next Gen SHOTPlus enables drill and blast engineers to model and predict blast movement, damage and vibration, Orica added.

Predictive blast movement modelling is enabled by Predict Physics Engine, allowing engineers to understand the impact of decisions on the post-blast muckpile. The Blast Damage feature provides 3D damage modelling, allowing engineers to evaluate the predicted damage generated on both blasted and in-situ rock masses.

Blast vibration seamlessly integrates Orica Digital Solutions’ Advanced Vibration Management platform to ensure users can predict and assess the impact of the environmental constraints of their drill and blast designs, Orica claims.

“Orica Digital Solutions third-party integration enables users who design outside of the next gen SHOTPlus ecosystem to benefit from market leading modelling capabilities,” Mathiravedu concludes.