Precision Rock Excavation: Beyond Controlled Blasting and Line Drilling

The strictness of the result of an excavation, whether mechanical or by means of explosives, is naturally conditioned by the objective, and therefore by the type of technique applied to achieve it. To attain the best results in terms of rock breakage and respect of the final profile, it’s im-portant to evaluate the excavation specific energy and its optimization. This research being a re-vision of different techniques to achieve good quality of the final walls, it focuses on evaluating the effects of those techniques on the quality of the result, both in open-pit and underground op-erations. Different geometries and configurations can be applied to both quarrying and tunnel-ling blasts. The research is aimed to push contour blasts to their limits, and the main aspects are discussed in order to improve the blast parameters in the daily practice.