Use of dynamites, water-gels and emulsion explosives in Sri Lankan quarrying/mining practice

In the Sri Lankan mining and quarrying industry, gelatine dynamite has been the widely used explosive for rock blasting purposes. In the recent past, it has been phased out and replaced by locally manufactured Water-gels(WG). So far, there had been only a very few tests conducted to assess the suitability and to evaluate the performance of this explosive with other available explosives. Complaints made by the users of Water-gels have been a cause of concern and prompted research to be conducted with the aim of evaluating the performance of Dynamites, Water-gels and Emulsion explosives with the measurement of major performance indicators in local mining and quarrying practice. In this research, performance comparison of WG, Dynamite and Emulsion explosives with regard to rock breakage in underground tunneling and in metal quarrying has been carried out. Comparison of fragmentation with the evaluation of particle size distribution in concrete block blasting using the three types of explosives has been one of the main tests. Gap sensitivity, density and the determination of velocity of detonation (VOD) has also been carried out. ENGINEER, Vol. 48, No.01, pp. 31-37, 2015