Orica President Europe Middle East and Africa, Tom Schutte said: “We are grateful to Resolute for their long-term cooperation in achieving this milestone. Our latest technologies, including WebGen, will create value for Resolute by enabling Syama mine to eliminate exposure of personnel in higher risk areas through safer pre-charging practices.”

WebGen™ will drive efficiency and optimisation throughout the production cycle for the mine. Including increased cave flow performance and overall ore recovery by reducing the consequences of hole dislocation or loss and redrilling required.

Resolute intends to utilise WebGen™ across its underground production operations and see WebGen™ technology as a critical enabler to achieving its automated mine of the future vision at Syama.

Orica says WebGen™ “signals a step-change in in-hole initiation and decisive step on the path towards full automation of drill and blast operations in the future. “

The system provides for groups of in-hole primers to be wirelessly initiated by a firing command that communicates through hundreds of metres of rock, water, and air. This removes constraints often imposed by the requirement of a physical connection to each primer in a blast.