Abstract
At the Mount Milligan mine, Blast Movement Monitors (BMMs) are used to measure blasted material movement to better understand the delineation of ore and waste contacts after a blast. This allows the ore control geologist to maximize the ore sent to the mill and to reduce the waste material processed. This process involves ore control personnel installing BMMs near the contacts and subsequently walking on the blasted muckpile to determine the location of the displaced BMMs. While the measured data is an important part of the ore control process, walking on the muckpile is a potential safety concern and the installation of BMMs is not possible in some cases.
Mount Milligan has partnered with Hexagon to improve both safety and production targets with respect to their current blast movement solution. Hexagon, alongside Augment Technologies, has developed ‘Blast Movement Intelligence’ (BMI), an AI-driven 3D blast movement solution that outputs a Muckpile Block Model™. This process utilizes blasting data to ensure that the model’s controlling parameters and simulated vectors are as accurate as possible. The movement model measurably improves over time, validated from time-to-time with BMM data. This integration provides the ore control geologist with detailed spatial and grade information to design more precise ore and waste boundaries for mine operations.
The objectives of this implementation are to improve the safety of the ore control team, by reducing time spent on the muckpile and to further reduce the amount of ore loss and dilution at the mine.