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ABSTRACT
Ground vibrations from the blasts of the LKAB mine at the Malmberget town had
reached 18-19 mm/s from year 2000 to 2002. From 2004 to 2010 the maximum vibrations
had been reduced to 9 mm/s and most vibrations lowered to about 5 mm/s, indicating that the
technical measures used in the mine are effective in vibration control. The major measure that
has always been used in Malmberget mine is the method called Changing Initiation Sequence
(CIS in short). Another method named Dividing Ring Blasting (DRB in short) is often applied
to some special blast rings in the mine. Both methods have been proved to be successful in
vibration reduction, and they do not need any additional costs. Because of the two methods,
both maximum vibrations and average ones have been reduced by around 50% since 2004.
1. INTRODUCTION
LKAB’s Malmberget mine is a large scale underground mine that produces 16
million-ton crude iron ore per year. In order to meet the requirement for a large scale
production, a large and long blasthole is used in the mine, giving rise to much
explosive to be charged in a single hole. In addition, one of the production areas in the
mine is very close to the Malmberget town. For example, the shortest distance
between a production ring and the nearest house in the town is only 250-300 m during
a number of years. The above factors make the ground vibrations induced by
production blasts reach a high level. The maximum vibrations were up to 19 mm/s
from 2000 to 2002. Those maximum vibrations, received at the Malmberget town,
usually come from the production blasts at two drifts—No.3 and No.6 (for some
levels No.8)—on each mining level in Johannes area. This is because these two drifts
are nearest to the town, compared with other production drifts. Very seldom, do some
mistakes in blasting operation cause the high vibrations at the town. For example, a
wrong initiation plan in production cut blasting (to create a free surface and swelling
room for the first production ring in each production drift), a simultaneous initiation
of two rings close to each other, or a wrong slot drilling in the production cut blasting
may result in high vibrations. Anyway, it has been a major task for LKAB to reduce
vibrations from the two drifts No.3 and No.6 (or 8) in Malmberget for many years.
In 2002, LKAB Malmberget mine started to try a technique which can be called
Stress Wave Superposition, originally reported by Blair (1987) and Hinzen (1988) and
later by many scientists such as Hoshino et al (2000) and Yang & Lownds (2011).
The test results from the Malmberget mine indicated that by using this method the
vibrations had been reduced by 10%. But the reduction was not enough for
Malmberget’s situation and the method required regular single shot from production
blasts, meaning the disturbance to mining production could be often, and the cost
would be high. Accordingly, a new method was developed which is called Changing
Initiation Sequence in Ring Blasts (CIS). The test results with the CIS method
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Z. X. Zhang
indicated that this method was efficient in vibration reduction. In addition, the third
method, named Dividing Ring Blasting (DRB), was developed and then applied to
some particularly-large rings with a success. All of the three methods have been
reported by Zhang et al (2004) and Zhang & Naarttijärvi (2005).
Since 2004 the CIS method has been used in all of production rings in the two
drifts from which vibrations are always very high. In some special cases, the method
was modified according to the specific conditions concerning vibrations. For most
large rings the DRB method was applied so as to further reduce the vibrations. During
the whole process of vibration control, we have also found some problems or mistakes
that affect ground vibration reduction in practice. On the basis of the above
background, this paper will mainly report the results for vibration reduction by using
both the CIS and the DRB method in the Malmberget mine since 2004. We will
discuss additional measures for enhancing the vibration control in the mine on the
basis of corresponding theories and practices.
Inhabitable area
D
C
II
E
A Hole A
Inhabitable area
Inhabitable area
F
I III
Blasting source
B
Hole B
Fractured area
IV
Slot
H
Inhabitable area
(1) To reduce the original stress waves by charging less explosive in a single
hole;
(2) To reduce the final vibration waves by making use of wave superposition;
(3) To make the vibration waves attenuated;
(4) To prevent the original stress waves from propagating into an inhabitable
area.
Figure 1 shows the above four methods for vibration reduction. The left side is
the first method by which vibrations can be reduced by taking various measures such
as employing a small hole instead of a large one if the explosives and blast parameters
are all the same in both cases. The second method is indicated in the upper part of the
figure, where two delayed waves from two holes (or decks) go together, and some
parts of the waves are overlapped. The third method is on the right side, where a
vibration wave is attenuated after it goes through a fractured area. The lower part
shows the fourth method, for example, a slot is made. As mentioned above, the
second method, i.e. the Stress Wave Superposition, was tested in Malmberget and the
vibration reduction due to this method was limited, so it was given up. The fourth
method is not considered feasible for the situation in Malmberget, so it will not be
discussed further. Therefore, we will focus on the first and third methods.
The first method consists of a number of measures such as choosing smaller
blast hole, using smaller burden, choosing a shorter blast hole, dividing one blast into
multiple blasts, avoiding simultaneous initiation, employing decoupling charge, using
air-spaced charge, and using explosive with low detonation velocity. In the
Malmberget mine, if a ring is very large, we use the DRB method to divide such a
ring into two parts in blasting. Otherwise for a normal ring, we only use the CIS
method to control vibrations. In the following we will briefly introduce them.
the final particle velocity and stress in M 3 will be reduced, compared with the case
where the wave directly propagate from M 1 to M 3 (or in this case we can say
M 1 M 2 ), According to Zhang & Naarttijärvi (2005). Notice that the condition
represented by formula (1) was obtained as 1 4500kg / m 3 , 3 2800kg / m 3 and
C1 C3 . For other mines, such a condition as shown in formula (1) should be
determined according to the detailed procedure by Zhang & Naarttijärvi (2005).
As stated previously, the maximum vibrations received by the Malmberget town
always come from two drifts 3 and 6 on each level of Johannes area. Both drifts stand
within two single ore bodies, and the town is located on the sides of their hanging
walls, as shown in Figure 3. The hanging walls are composed of bedrock.
A normal production ring in the two drifts is shown in Figure 3. This ring
contains 9 blastholes, and the longest hole is in the middle of the ring. Usually, such a
middle hole, i.e. the hole marked with 5th, is initiated first. Then the other holes are
initiated one by one with a delay time. In this case, the stress waves due to the blast of
66
Z. X. Zhang
the hole 5th will go through the solid ore mass and solid hanging wall and finally to
the town.
M1 M2 M3
A B
I1 I1 I2 I2
T2 T2 T3 T3
R1 R1 R2 R2
A B C3
1 C1 2 C2 3
5th
6th 4th
Caved waste rock
Hanging wall (solid rock)
7th 3rd
City (town)
8th 1st
2nd
Now let us change the initiation sequence in the ring of Figure 3: we first
initiate a short hole numbered 1st, then do the hole numbered 2nd, hole 3rd and so on.
With this initiation sequence, as shown in Figure 3, after the first hole indicated
by“1st” in the ring is initiated, a fractured zone surrounding this hole is formed, i.e. a
certain number of cracks are produced. Then when one of the blastholes numbered 3rd
to 9th is blasted, to the direction of the town, some of the stress or vibration waves
caused by such a blasthole must traverse the fractured zone around hole “1st” (as well
as 2nd), and further pass through the hanging wall. Thus, the vibrations from all these
blastholes (3rd to 9th) can be reduced. Note that it is the blasthole numbered 1st that is
initiated first rather than the blasthole numbered 2nd. If the blasthole numbered 2nd is
initiated or blasted first, the blastholes in the nearest ring on next level (under the hole
numbered 2nd) will be broken. As a consequence, the blasting result, particularly rock
fragmentation, will be much worse. In reality, as shown in Figure 3, after blastholes
1st and 2nd are blasted, a fractured zone surrounding both 1st and 2nd hole has been
built up if the delay time between the holes is not too short. Thus, when the blastholes
numbered 3rd to 9th are blasted, the vibrations caused by them will be markedly
reduced due to the wave attenuation through the fractured zone.
Controlling Vibrations Caused by Underground 67
Blasts in Lkab Malmberget Mine
Section A-A
A
R1 R2 R3
4
Upper part of R2
3 5
2 6
Upper parts of rings
1 D 7
B E
C
G
F
Lower part of R1
Drift Drift
R1 R2
Upper part of R2
10
11 9
12
D D 7
13
8
3 2
4
G G
F 5 0 F
6 1
Lower part of R1
Drift Drift
Initiation sequence from the lower part of R1 to the upper part of R2:
0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13
Figure 5- Initiation sequence in the DRB method combining with the CIS method.
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
8/12/00 4/19/01 12/25/01 9/1/02 5/9/03 1/14/04 9/20/04 5/28/05 2/2/06 10/10/06 6/17/07 2/22/08 10/29/08 7/6/09 3/13/10 11/18/10
Date (M/D/Year)
As a consequence, the CIS method will not be effective. According to the practice in
the Malmberget mine, we have found that when a delay time between two
neighbouring holes is equal to or greater than 100 ms, the CIS method works very
well. However, as the delay time is smaller than 25 ms, it does not work. For other
mines, a proper delay time should be determined on the basis of their own parameters
in blasting and their own tests.
4. CONCLUSIONS
The CIS method has been shown to be efficient in vibration reduction in
Malmberget mine. In a normal case or for a sublevel ring with a normal shape, the
vibrations can be reduced by around 50% if a proper delay time is used. In addition,
the CIS method requires no additional cost. In most cases, this method should be
effective if the geographical conditions concerning blasts and the place where the
vibrations must be controlled are suitable for the CIS method. In many cases
geographical conditions are suitable for this method. Sometimes, if the geographical
condition is not suitable for the method, another method for vibration reduction has to
be used. When the CIS method is employed, another method for vibration control,
such as the DRB method may be used together.
The DRB method is also an efficient method for vibration reduction. If properly
designed, the method can be also used to improve rock fragmentation and ore
extraction according to the tests in Malmberget.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank Torbjörn Naarttijärvi, Karl Wikström, Carlos
Quinteiro, Anders Nordqvist, Egon Sundling, Kjell Harnesk, Bengt-Olov kristensen
and chargers in Malmberget mine for their support. The author is very grateful to the
anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.
REFERENCES
Blair, D.P. (1987) The measurement, modelling and control of ground vibrations due
to blasting. In: Proceedings of the 2nd Int. Symp. On Rock Fragmentation by Blasting,
Keystone, Colorado, August 23-26, 1987, pp.88-101.
Hoshino, T. et al. (2000) Optimum delay time interval design in delay blasting.
Fragblast—International Journal for blasting and Fragmentation, Vol. 4:139-149.
Controlling Vibrations Caused by Underground 71
Blasts in Lkab Malmberget Mine
Yang, R. & M. Lownds (2011) Modelling effect of delay scatter on peak particle
velocity of blast vibration using a multiple seed waveform vibration model. Blasting
and Fragmentation, Vol. 5(1):31-46.
Zhang, Z.X. et al. (2004) A feasibility study on controlling ground vibrations caused
by blasts in Malmberget underground mine. Fragblast—International Journal for
blasting and Fragmentation, Vol. 8(1):1-19.