Author 1:
Name & Surname: Opanasenko P. I.
Company: SUEK (Moscow, Russia)
Work Position: Deputy Technical Director
Scientific Degree: Candidate of Engineering Sciences

Author 2:
Name & Surname: Isaichenkov A. B.
Company: SUEK (Moscow, Russia)
Scientific Degree: Head of Department for Engineering and Surface Mining Technologies
Contacts: isaychenkovab@suek.ru

The article reports studies on optimization of semi-hard overburden fragmentation by blasting in Tugnuisky open pit mining with truck-and-shovel flow chart. The idea of the studies was to obtain a stripping cost curve per each technological process and to determine overall expenses at varied preset values of weighted mean fragment size. The weighted mean fragment size fitting minimum overall expenses will allow assessment of optimal fragmentation data. Using Blast Maker software, drilling and blasting parameters have been determined, including powder factor and cost per unit per process at varied values of weighted mean fragment size. The automatic traffic control in Tugnuisky open pit mine allows any time tracing of truck-and-shovel operation, and creating of data base on time consumption per each shoveling cycle (including record of rock weight in bucket) and each truck trip (time, velocity, load and fuel flow rate). The data base was used in the analysis of influence of rock fragmentation by blasting on Bucyrus 495HD shovel production capacity. Validity of the obtained relationship between powder factor, rock fragmentation by blasting and shovel capacity was tested on a pilot scale. The comparison of the estimate and actual shovel capacities showed high confidence of the obtained empirical relationship. The developed procedure has enabled plotting of cost–fragmentation curves for all basic processes within the studied technology and estimating overall expenses. These curves have a minimum cost area that assists in defining the optimum fragment size as 0.85–0.90 m; the minimum cost area is unaltered for load distances of 3, 4 and 5 km.

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