Geometrical characteristics of rock fragments in the dynamics of bench blasting

Blasting of rock mass in mining involves mixing of minerals and barren rock. A zone of quantitative and qualitative mineral loss forms as a result. Aiming at delineating this zone, the article studies formation of a muck pile in bench blasting. Prediction of blasted rock disintegration in a muck pile is critical in extraction of structurally complex and hard ore bodies. It enables selection of an effective method of ore breaking at heterogeneous faces. For the development of an innovative approach to determination of blasted rock disintegration in muck piles, abundant data of high-speed photography of blasting operations in open pit mines are analyzed. The research objective is the muck pile patterns as function of the blast design parameters. The method is the graphical analysis of influence of a blasting pattern on mineral loss and dilution. The result is the science-based prediction of qualitative and quantitative mineral loss under different conditions of blasting. The key conclusion is that spatial distribution and sizes of blasted rock particles in mick pile is closely related with the spatial positions of the perimeter rows of blastholes relative to the muck pile. The joint use of the coordinate grids of blasted and to-be blasted blocks makes it possible to determine spatial patterns of different components of a blasted bench in a muck pile, and to determine their shapes and other geometrical characteristics. To this effect, the contours of the mentioned components are plotted on a selected scale on the coordinate grid of the to-be blasted block, and the coordinate grid of the blasted block helps delineate their deformed shapes. 

Rakishev B. R., Rakisheva Z. B., Orynbay A. A., Baizhumin D. A., Turdaliyeva A. S. Geometrical characteristics of rock fragments in the dynamics of bench blasting. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2026;(7):90-108. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2026_7_0_90.

B.R. Rakishev¹, Dr. Sci. (Eng.), Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Professor, e-mail: b.rakishev@satbayev.university, ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5445-070X, 
Z.B. Rakisheva, Cand. Sci. (Phys. Mathem.) (Ph.D. equivalent), Professor, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, 050013, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan, e-mail: zaure.ra@gmail.com, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-2745-7775,
A.A. Orynbay, PhD, Associate Professor, Gumarbek Daukeyev Almaty University of Power Engineering and Telecommunications, 050013, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan, e-mail: a.orynbay@aues.kz, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3720-7625,
D.A. Baizhumin¹, PhD Student, e-mail: dbaizhumin@gmail.com, ORCID ID: 0009-0003-6276-118X,
A.S. Turdaliyeva¹, PhD Student, e-mail: altynaiym.turdaliyeva@interrin.kz, ORCID ID: 0009-0001-2919-3518,
¹ Satbayev University (K.I. Satpayev Kazakh National Research Technical University), 050013, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan.

A.A. Orynbay, e-mail: a.orynbay@aues.kz.

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