Innovative DTH drill monitoring a pre study
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Luleå tekniska universitet - Avdelningen för geoteknologi |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 496 000 |
| Project duration | April 2018 - February 2019 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | The strategic innovation programme for Swedish mining and metal producing industry - SIP Swedish Mining Innovation |
| Call | STRIM fall 2017 |
Important results from the project
The aim of this project is to evaluate the potential of Measure While Drilling technique for pneumatic Down-The-Hole (DTH) drilling. The specific objectives are to try to estimate the structural conditions, to estimate ore grade using MWD and to investigate the potential for MWD to improve blasting. The results from the project have shown that this new technique has good potential to accurately characterize the properties of the penetrated rock mass.
Expected long term effects
The results shown good correlation between MWD data and fracturing. This automatically generated information can guide the operation in the selection of blast directions. Furthermore, the quality of final walls is essential for stability and safety. For correct planning of mine production MWD can provide detailed knowledge of the extension and boundaries between different ore qualities, which would reduce cost and improve resolution of this information.
Approach and implementation
Totally have 34 benches with 4362 holes, been monitored including 17 side rock benches, 15 ore benches and 2 final wall drill lines. To locate fracture on bench faces Close-Range Terrestrial Digital Photogrammetry has been used. The find the correlation between MWD and ore types a supervised feature selection method based on the Hilbert-Schmidt dependence criterion have been applied. To evaluate how MWD could be used for blast planning discussion have been initiated with Maptek and Austin.