Big Blast Sets Record at Kumba Iron Ore Mine in South Africa

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--About 940 tonnes of explosives were detonated on August 4 to set a new record for a single blast at Kumba Iron Ore's (JSE:KIO) (Centurion, South Africa) Kolomela mine at Postmasburg, in South Africa's Northern Cape province.

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The blast freed up more than 2 million tons of waste material for removal. The explosives were detonated in a timed sequence over 3.5 seconds. The blast area covered 4.6 hectares.

Staking the area started on June 12 and took more than seven hours to complete. Workers then drilled 2,542 holes to an average depth of 17.45 meters. Workers began charging the holes on June 20.

An average single blast at the mine produces about 400,000 tonnes of material. The previous record blast produced 1.6 million tonnes.

Mine General Manager Aart van den Brink said the mine produces direct shipping ore for the export market, with an annual production capacity of 10 million tonnes. In the first half of 2014, production was up 4% to 5.5 million tonnes.

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