Browsing by Author "Mwakabage, Joseph Donald"

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Process improvement of rock fragmentation by means of drilling and blasting: case of Geita Gold Mine and Buzwagi Gold Mines
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2016) Mwakabage, Joseph Donald
    Rock fragmentation by means of explosives in hard rock mining particularly in our reference areas of Geita Gold Mine and Buzwagi Gold mine is a vital process of loosening rock mass to ease separation, handling and it is the first stage of size reduction for mineral liberation and hence recovery. The aim of the study was to identify means to improve the process efficiency and add value to the mining industry. The methodology that was used involved identification of poor blast results, suffering environment and source of poor blasts eventually means for improvements. Results have demonstrated that pit wall failures, hard digging ground, oversized materials, ore loss and dilution and failure to achieve designs have been the key features of poor blast results. This has economic and environmental as well as safety impacts to the mine and the surroundings including being the source of fatality, infrastructures damage, increased operations costs, and reduced productivity and ore loss/dilution that may result to the halt of operation. A part from explosives technology limitations as well as operational challenges, the lack of adequate geotechnical information of the ground as input to blast design has been the chief source of poor blast results. Several technological options are available to provide ground geotechnical information as input to blast design, but the impacts differ from one mine to another dictated by prevailing geological setting and surrounding environment as well as the performance of the economic assumptions used for appraisal. The challenges are also given different consideration from mine to mine, thus resulted to lack of collective efforts to characterize the impacts and develop operational standards to be adopted in industry to improve efficiency and hence promote profits including the appraisal of marginal deposits.