Wall control blasting practices at the Ekati (TM) diamond mine

A review of blast designs and improved blasting practices at the Ekati (TM) diamond mine is presented along with the results of three blast-monitoring experiments. Blast monitoring was undertaken to investigate blast damage m echanisms in the mine's well jointed rock mass. Rock mass damage caused by production, pre-shear and wall control blasts was measured Ekati (TM) uses 270 mm holes for production blasting, and 165 mm holes loaded with a decoup led charge for pre-shearing. The production blasts are loaded with bulk emu lsion/ANFO blends. The mine plan involves using 30 m double benches, A 30 m high pre-shear is drilled and blasted prior to the production blasting tha t is done with sequential 15 m benches. This paper summarizes the monitorin g equipment and data gathered to date.