Tag Archives: ACARP

Mining3’s Alternative Explosives Project finding the right formula

Environmental, Explosives and blasting, Mining consumables, Mining equipment, Mining services, Sustainable mining, , , , , , , , , , ,

Later this year, Mining3 is to demonstrate to funding supporters and commercialisation partners a significant ACARP-funded project milestone of a number of blasts in rock with hydrogen peroxide-based emulsion explosive at an increasing scale of production.

While rock-breakage displays in Queensland quarries with alternative explosives formulations were completed back in 2016, those formulations were proof-of-principle tests for a hydrogen peroxide-based explosive. The project has moved on significantly since then.

“Last year we completed a complete suite of United Nations (UN) authorisation tests to confirm that the new emulsion formulation has a feasible classification as a commercially viable product,” Mining3 said. “Our prior hydrogel-based formulations, whilst demonstrating rock-breakage potential, did not pass UN classification and have been abandoned.”

Last year, Mining3 and western New South Wales-based independent explosives testing partner, Rurex, comprehensively tested the novel emulsion formulation. The outcome of UN testing is a portfolio of results that, Mining3 says, will assist explosives delivery companies to apply for authorisation within their regulatory jurisdictions for the new emulsion formulation. Three series of tests were conducted to ensure that the new formula was safe to use regarding fire, impact, friction and heating.

Mining3 said: “We reported UN classification for a Class 1.1D UN0241 explosive as a significant achievement last year. But what the data doesn’t show is the countless failed trials and white knuckles that the researchers had when conducting the authorisation tests. Any single failure can scuttle the formulation from advancing to commercial application, and represented in some formulas, such as all the failed hydrogel formula, hundreds of hours of research. Whilst it is relatively easy to make a hydrogen peroxide-based explosive, the heightened energetics of the oxidiser was a challenge to make a safe explosive that is acceptable to industry.”

With the confidence of a supportive suite of UN test results, Mining3 says it is assured of commercialisation with the new emulsion formulation.

Following on from the UN test results, Sydney-based mining equipment manufacture, Elquip, has developed a prototype 500 kg duo-batch-mixer to produce the volumes of explosive material for mine site bulk trials. It has been an equally challenging path to a safe and effective mixer for a model of on-site, on-demand emulsion explosives manufacture.

An image from the Elquip prototype hydrogen peroxide-based Emulsion Mixer commissioning trials at Rurex, in western NSW, in July 2022. “We always take a safety-first approach in our research, so, in the pictured trial and initial commissioning tests, we used full body hazchem suites,” Dr Andrew Kettle says (photo courtesy of Ryan Esam, Rurex)

Scaling from the laboratory bench to the mine bench explosive formula manufacture is a journey requiring all the caution imaginable, and some unimagined. “Elquip has embraced the adventure and positioned themselves as the preferred equipment supplier aligned to the near-horizon commercialisation pathway,” Mining3 says. The specificity of hydrogen peroxide material compatibility, equipment design and safety for a hydrogen peroxide-based explosive has been captured by Elquip, ensuring its equipment and support of the Mining3 research projects is successful. Commissioning of the first prototype batch mixer was conducted at Rurex last year and is now being shipped to the blast trial sites, Mining3 says.

Senior Research Leader, Dr Andrew Kettle, said: “Rurex certainly challenged Elquip during equipment testing. Sub-zero temperatures during the winter months, last year, proved the ambient temperature manufacture claims for the emulsion formula. Importantly, the emulsion, made from two liquids, one obviously being hydrogen peroxide-based oxidiser phase, can be made at ambient temperature. From an Australian perspective, that reality is below 2°C to above 40°C. So, we have tested manufacture in these ambient environmental temperatures at Rurex.”

The alternative explosives research to date has been supported by ACARP and collaborating companies, such as Elquip and Rurex. Going forward, Mining3 has launched an Expression of Interest (EOI) to companies to build a commercialisation roadmap and deliver the technology to the mining market.

“The interest in our EOI for Mining3 alternative explosives technology has been very successful,” Dr Kettle says. “We have built on the industry awareness of our research and are looking at viable pathways to market. We have had numerous discussions covering the broad application of the formula in open-cut, underground and civil applications, and ancillary product applications of the formula with a large variety of industry interests. We’ll continue to work with the myriad of companies to ensure a safe and effective transition for this technology.”

Mining3’s ‘Top of Coal’ tech heads for commercialisation with CR Digital pact

Coal technology, Explosives and blasting, Mining services, Mining techniques, Steel and iron ore, , , , , , , , , ,

Mining3’s “Top of Coal” technology is heading for commercialisation after the company signed an agreement with CR Digital for the next phase of the innovation’s development.

The announcement comes on the back of promising new results delivered from the most recent trial in the Bowen Basin of Queensland, where the technology was tested over 12 weeks and collected downhole data from over 250-plus boreholes, the companies said.

“Accurately detecting the approaching top of a coal seam prior to blasting is fundamental to efficient coal recovery,” Mining3 and CR Digital said. “During the extraction stage, a significant percentage (up to 12%) of overall coal loss is attributable to blast damage and coal dilution, which then makes it difficult to separate the coal cleanly from the waste during both overburden excavation and coal processing. By eliminating the damage done to the top of seam, substantial increases in recovery are enabled.”

With support from ACARP, Mining3 has been developing a measurement while drilling (MWD) system that detects the top of a coal seam while routinely drilling blast holes.

During the drilling process, the detection system uses resistance measurements ahead of the drill bit to detect approaching coal in real time. This method of detecting “Top of Coal” brings significant benefits to surface mining operations, Mining3 says, including:

  • Providing a reliable indication of the approach to “Top of Coal” that will enable drilling to be stopped before touching coal or at a minimum standoff distance;
  • Increase production by reducing damage to coal from blasting; and
  • Strata recognition and mapping during routine blasthole drilling.

The system can also be retro fitted to a standard rotary air blast drill rig.

CR Digital, part of the global CR Group, is now working with Mining3 on the commercialisation of the technology, and the integration of the Top of Coal technology into its technology portfolio.

Together, CR Digital and Mining3 see potential for the technology to be an extension to the Thunderbird 1110 and StrataSense products within the CR Digital portfolio.

“Collectively, this agnostic range can be retrofitted to any rotary air blast drill rig and is intended to build on the StrataSense capability of CR Digital, to compile a three-dimensional understanding of the bench and coal seam in real time,” the companies said.

Mining3 makes emulsion breakthrough on alternative explosives project

Explosives and blasting, Mining consumables, Mining services, , , , , , ,

In November, Mining3 says it achieved a significant milestone with the successful detonation of a world first hydrogen peroxide-based emulsion explosive as part of its alternative explosives project.

Using proprietary formulations, a series of trial blasts confirmed its ability to detonate, and provided early steps into the characterisation of this improved product, Mining3 said. “The new formulation is a major achievement in superseding water-gel/hydrogel formulations and a crucial advancement in product stability and sleep-time,” the company said.

Mining3 and the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering at the University of Queensland are testing alternative explosive formulations, which eliminate the nitrogen component and replace it with hydrogen peroxide as the main oxidising agent. By removing the nitrogen component of the explosive formulation, it eliminates any NOx fumes generated after blasting, the partners said.

Back in January, Mining3 reported that detonation performance tests, conducted in December 2018 using new materials in the formula – physical sensitisation materials based on glass and polystyrene materials – had delivered improved explosive performance, reliability and product stability.

In its latest report, Mining3 reported on its emulsion developments: “Gums and emulsifiers, are the binding agents in water-gel and emulsions, respectively. Importantly, gums have a low-level organic contamination which leads to hydrogen peroxide degradation and limited current water-gel technology for manufacture-and-immediate-detonation applications.

“With synthetically produced emulsifiers, the material can be inert-to-hydrogen peroxide, lengthening the product stability to a significant period and enabling broader applications in the mining industry.”

Considerable effort has been invested in the pursuit of compatible emulsifiers, Mining3 said, and, with recent successes in detonation trials, it has made the past year of research “worthwhile”.

It continued: “Not only do we have a formulation with advanced oxidiser/fuel intimacy but also considerable advances in stability. Manufacture techniques have also maintained the ambient temperature methodology that gives the hydrogen peroxide-based explosives technology a distinct advantage in production cost.”

Over five days at RUREX, Australia’s only professional independent detonation testing range, upwards of 60 detonation tests were fired. Several other formulations were tested that will advance in the technology pipeline, but it is the confirmation of emulsion tests that was the most immediate success, according to Mining3.

This research has been supported by ACARP from its inception and transfer of this technology to the industry is eagerly anticipated, Mining3 added.

Dr Andrew Kettle, Senior Experimental Scientist and Project Executor, said: “These blasts have confirmed that we are pursuing the right pathway forward. We have invigorated enthusiasm going forward to further characterise the new emulsions in preparation for mine site trials in 2020. We are indebted, of course, to the ongoing support of ACARP and RUREX, and the vision of Mining3.”

Tailings monitoring could go autonomous, Mining3 says

Automation, Communications in mining, Environmental, Mine surveying, Mining equipment, Mining maintenance, Mining safety, Mining services, Mining software, Water management, , , , , , ,

Mining3 says it and The University of Queensland, in conjunction with the Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP), are currently in the process of building prototype autonomous sensors for the constant monitoring of tailings and spoil storage facilities.

The Australia-based company said: “Tailings impoundments are one of the largest man-made structures on earth and ensuring their integrity for the safety of human life, the environment and property are critical in today’s mining operations. Past and recent catastrophic tailings dam failures have placed an urgent need for improved waste disposal, storage processes and monitoring capabilities.”

Currently, the integrity of the tailings dam infrastructure is monitored by mining staff walking along the, potentially unstable, perimeter and visually inspecting the exterior. Piezometer-like devices are also placed throughout dams to measure changes in liquid pressure. “Combined, these methods provide subjective data that cannot deliver an ongoing and accurate assessment of the integrity of these waste storage facilities,” Mining3 said. “Without a reasonable assessment of these large structures, there is no way to identify if or when one might fail.”

With a web of small, interconnected sensors spread across a tailings dam or spoil dump, Mining3 says accurate measurements in the change of water pressure or movement in the soil can be delivered to the surface in real-time. “This provides up to date readings of environmental factors that can affect overall wall stability, limiting the need for staff on the ground,” the company added.

Mining 3 and the university’s research will also delve into identifying indicators and precursors to failures, in relation to data collected from these sensors. “This could revolutionise the understanding of these storage facilities. By understanding the causation, steps can then be taken to minimise risk in the future,” Mining3 said.

“The current project addresses key industry outcomes surrounding safety and the removal of personnel from hazardous situations such as those involved in ground stability, the investigation of material properties and their implications in the design and functionality of a dump site, and the investigation into aspects of effective mine closure and the long term impacts associated with tailings dams and spoil dumps.”