AXXIS Titanium can help miners achieve optimal blasting results, while ensuring worker safety and reducing costs, inefficiencies and environmental impacts. Image: BME
BME provides safe, high quality blasting solutions to the Australian mining industry.
SSafety, quality and innovation are the pillars on which the sandblasting specialist is based. BMEand guide every aspect of its operations. A member of the Omnia Group, BME has strengthened its presence in Australia over the past year.
The company’s safety-first approach to blasting operations has resonated strongly with the mining industry, a response that was instrumental in BME’s decision to announce a new manufacturing facility in Western Australia.
When asked what sets it apart from others, BME Senior Product Manager Dr Rakhi Pathak said it was the company’s ability to provide customers with tailor-made sandblasting solutions tailored to their specific demands.
“Whether underground or on the surface, BME can customize its emulsion, blasting design, delivery systems and software solutions to meet the diverse needs of our customers,” she said. Working safely“BME Australia can provide customised solutions that ensure safe, reliable and high quality blasting.”
A bottom-up approach
BME’s manufacturing methodology is characterized by meticulous attention to detail. Every raw ingredient used in its emulsions undergoes a series of quality tests, while the automated assembly lines used in the manufacturing process have built-in safety and quality guarantees.
This type of precision is essential to avoid the introduction of unforeseen elements into the product, thus preserving its quality and stability.
The emulsions are also made at low temperatures from recycled oil, which helps reduce energy consumption and waste, while reducing carbon emissions.
“Dual salt emulsions have an extended shelf life, can tolerate extreme operating conditions and provide increased blasting performance,” Pathak said. “They are also much safer to transport than traditional emulsions, which is very important in Australia, where operations often take place in remote and hot environments.”
“Double salt emulsions are very robust systems that can be successfully pumped multiple times and are less susceptible to crystallization, which causes product degradation and fumes.”
Speaking of fumes, the emission of noxious gases during blasting has long been a safety concern for the mining industry. But BME’s dual salt emulsion significantly reduces these risks.
“The chemical composition of double-salt emulsions can be easily optimized to minimize the generation of harmful gases,” Pathak said.
“A careful balance between the oxidant – ammonium nitrate and calcium nitrate – and the fuel in an emulsion is necessary to ensure that only harmless gases are generated.”
These emulsions are also less susceptible than traditional explosives to nitrate leaching, which can cause environmental damage and threaten a mine’s compliance with current legislation.
Activate the safety switch
BME’s AXXIS blast detonation technology is where safety features truly come to life.
AXXIS Titanium is the latest product introduced in the initiation system, which includes multiple safety doors against stray currents and lighting to prevent accidental initiation. Explosions can only be triggered by a robust and encrypted explosion control from AXXIS Titanium, which ensures that all electronic time-delay detonators receive their respective commands and fire as intended.
In other words, the detonator will only react if it receives the correct encrypted firing sequence from the blasting equipment.
AXXIS Titanium also incorporates dual capacitors and dual voltage, allowing users to perform low voltage testing and recording to avoid any risk of detonation.
“These detonators also bring significant additional safety benefits when initiating explosions due to their ability to be tested before firing, ease of two-way communications, reliability, programmability and accuracy,” said Michael Wiseman, Managing Director of BME Australia. “Mining operations can now be safer as misfires can be largely eliminated due to these attributes.”
In a major strategic milestone for BME Australia, the company is developing a manufacturing facility for its detonators in Kalgoorlie, WA.
Once operational, this facility will make BME the state’s first locally-owned manufacturer of electronic detonators. And, importantly, the facility will also provide the Western Australian mining industry with significant supply chain security and logistical advantages.
“The Australian mining market has seen a significant shift from shock tubes to electronic detonators,” Wiseman said. “BME’s explosive systems feature a range of safety features including a double-insulated copper core, which provides market-leading resistance to in-hole stresses during loading and firing; two-way communication between the detonator and the firing system; full track and trace from plant to pit; and millisecond accuracy across the entire firing time range.
“BME’s technology contributes to the industry’s risk reduction efforts, but also provides performance benefits in facilitating large, accurate and reliable shots.”
The Future of Blasting
Pathak said BME is adopting a comprehensive “end-to-end value chain strategy” for its operations, taking into account not only security and supply chain considerations, but also environmental factors.
True to this philosophy, the company is developing a sustainable sandblasting solution, which has so far delivered exciting results.
In partnership with Hypex Bio, BME is developing a nitrate-free emulsion, which will have considerable environmental benefits. The new emulsion has so far demonstrated a 90% reduction in nitrogen oxide gases.
“At BME, we are always looking for the next big thing: leveraging new technologies to make things safer not only for people but also for the environment,” Pathak said.
For BME, everything from the design phase to the moment the dust settles after an explosion has been meticulously designed.
From underground to surface mining, the company’s range of blasting solutions make mining operations safer across Australia.
This feature also appears in the July August security problem has Work.