The introduction of the WebGen™ wireless initiating systems has marked a turning point in the mining industry.
Traditional blasting methods that use wires, signal tube, and surface delay detonators create complexities that impede production and safety. WebGen has effectively removed these issues by eliminating the need for physical connections in and between blastholes.
Blasting in sensitive areas
WebGen wireless initiating systems take the complexity out of operations involving blasting in sensitive areas or communities in the following ways:
Secure when loaded
When isolated securely in a blasthole, a WebGen primer is effectively immune to all credible sources of friction, impact, electricity, and heat in the mining environment. This removes the constraints imposed by conventional wired and non-electric initiation systems.
Lightning risk reduction
Wireless systems mitigate the risk by removing the connection between the primer and the surface. An initiation system without a physical connection from the primer at the bottom of the blasthole to the surface is practically immune to a lightning strike. With wireless blasting, the consequence of lightning strikes on loaded blastholes is mitigated, so that thunderstorm exclusion zones can be reduced or eliminated, enabling operators to reclaim hours of lost production time.?Orica has extensively modelled and tested to confirm that a WebGen wireless primer in a blasthole is protected from all credible energy sources that might initiate or damage it, provided it is three metres below the surface. In a lightning event, the temperature and pressure effects of lightning are rapidly attenuated by the earth.
?Therefore, blasts primed only with WebGen do not require an exclusion zone during thunderstorms, provided explosive items are at least three metres below the surface.
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