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Improvement of SAG Mill Productivity through Explosive Selection

Nenad Djordjevic
JKMRC
Introduction
The feed for a semi-autogenous (SAG) mill should be characterised by a
strongly bi-modal size distribution. The performance of the mill will be
optimal when the feed contains a large amount of fragments less than
10mm and between 70 to 120mm. Intermediate fragments from 20 to
50mm are generally considered unfavourable for mill performance. Such
fragments are not sufficiently large enough to break smaller fragments,
and are also too small to be efficiently broken by the SAG mill balls.
Hence, intermediate fragments tend to be retained within the mill for a
long time, consuming energy without doing any useful work.
It follows then that the minimisation of the intermediate fragment size
range would be advantageous for mill performance. Although primary
crushers are responsible for some of these fragments, the majority are
created in the Run-Of-Mine (ROM) product. An optimal ROM product,
from the point of view of SAG mill productivity, can be influenced by
careful selection of explosives, based on modelling of the release of
explosive energy and dynamic rock fragmentation. The purpose of this
paper is to investigate means for increasing SAG mill productivity
through modification of the ROM fragment size distribution (Figure 1).

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100
90
80
70
60
% 50
40
30
20
10
0
1

10

relative size

100

1000

Figure 1. Relative shift of feed size to optimal ROM product

Explosive Induced Rock Fragmentation
Explosive induced rock fragmentation is composed of at least two distinct
phases. The first phase, after explosive initiation, is characterised by a
rapid rise of the borehole pressure, within a fraction of a millisecond, to a
value determined by explosives density and velocity of detonation and
the nature of its confinement (Persson et al, 1994).
This sudden application of pressure increases the blasthole volume,
resulting in intensive crushing of the rock in the immediate vicinity.
Gases produced by the explosion expand into newly created cracks,
causing further fragmentation.
As the gas pressure drops below a value approximately equal to the
dynamic compressive strength of the rock, the remaining thermodynamic
energy of the gases is transformed into mechanical work in the form of
displacement of the rock mass along the newly created fractures or along
pre-existing fractures and bedding planes.
The post blast fragment size distribution reflects the nature of its creation
(Djordjevic, 2000). A blast induced size distribution frequently exhibits a
bi-modal character, with two distinct regions for the fine and coarse parts
of the curve. In particular, the slopes of the two parts of the curve are
different. Fines are created primarily though intensive fragmentation
close to the blasthole, while coarse fragments result from tensile failure

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and fragmentation along pre-exiting joints. Recent experimental results
indicate that a substantial amount of the fines is also created by shearing
asperities along new or old cracks (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Zones of intensive fragmentation and radial

cracking around a blasthole

SAG Mill Productivity

The productivity of a SAG mill is determined by the breakage frequency,
which is defined as the number of breakages per particle per unit of time
(Morrell, 1989). The breakage rate is influenced by the particle size
(Figure 3). Within the size range influenced by blasting, the minimum
breakage rate usually occurs for fragments between 25 and 50mm. the
maximum breakage rate occurs for particles less than 10mm. Also, the
breakage rate for fragments around 100mm is several times higher than
that for intermediate sized fragments (20-50mm). gain, this shows that

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minimisation of the amount of intermediate sized fragments will result in
improved productivity for a SAG mill.
100

-1

Breakage rate (hr )

10

0.1

0.01
0.001

0.01

0.1

10

100

1000

Size (mm)

Figure 3. Example of the breakage rate

The significance of SAG mill productivity of is shown in the cost of
crushing and grinding. In a typical Australian open pit copper mine
(Rudenno, 1998), the crushing and grinding cost is about 6.45$/t of ore;
on the other hand, the cost of drilling and blasting is about 0.57$/t. Even
a substantial increase in the cost of blasting is likely to be more than
compensated through savings in crushing and grinding.
In open pit blasting, the intermediate sized fragments are almost always
part of the fines. The coarse part of the curve tends to commence for
fragments of about 70-100mm. Optimising fines generation, i.e.
increasing the amount of fragments less than 10mm, is related to the
reduction of intermediate sized rock fragments.

Modelling of Explosive Energy

The size of the fragments created in rock blasting within a given volume
of rock is affected by the amount of energy released. Explosive energy
release can be modelled using codes such as CHEETAH (Fried et al,
1998). CHEETAH is a thermo-chemical code which models explosive
energy realise based on the explosive composition and density.
Immediately after detonation the explosive chemical reaction produces
gases with extremely high pressure and temperature. The detonation

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pressure at the instant that the blasthole volume is filled with gas can be
described by the equation:
P = 0.125*density*VOD^2

(1)

For a given explosive the VOD increases with an increase of explosive

density. The initial blasthole pressure indicates the amount of energy
waiting to be transformed into mechanical work as the gas expands. If
the explosive density can be increased or if the density of the explosive is
intrinsically high (such as TNT 1.635 g/cc or various emulsions with
density 1.0 - 1.35 g/cc), this will result in a substantially increased
amount of explosive energy. A high VOD, high density explosive will
release a much larger amount of energy during the initial phase of gas
expansion, relative to a low VOD, low density explosive.
The ability of an explosive to produce very fine rock fragments (less than
10mm) is influenced not just by the amount of available energy but also
by the rate at which the energy is transformed into mechanical work,
through the pressure which is induced in the rock mass. The release of
energy is not as uniform a process as the gas volume increase. The initial
drop in pressure is much faster. The gradient of the pressure decay as a
function of the gas volume is influenced by the initial amount of available
energy. The resulting pressure and stress will determine the average
fragment size. The mean fragment size will vary with distance from the
blasthole. In the immediate vicinity, the gas pressure is highest; hence
the stress induced into the rock is also highest. Deformation of the rock
will rapidly absorb large amount of gas energy, producing relatively
small fragments. Also, part of the energy will be consumed as seismic
vibration. However, this is rarely more than 5% of the initially available
energy in open-pit blasting (Frantti, 1963).
Depending on the explosive composition and density, the rate of energy
release will vary. Figure 4 shows the incremental release of energy for
ANFO (density 0.8 g/cc) and TNT (density 1.635 g/cc) as a function of
the incremental increase in gas volume. The major difference occurs in
the initial phase of gas expansion, where TNT releases about 45% more
energy per unit of mass than ANFO. Such an energy release will result in
very high pressure being applied to the rock.

dE (kJ/g)

3
tnt

anfo

0
0

10

dV/Vo

Figure 4. Incremental energy release per unit mass for TNT

and ANFO as a function of incremental gas volume
From a practical mining point of view, it is better to consider energy
release per blasthole (or per unit volume of explosive). In this case, due
to its much higher density, TNT will release much more energy (more
than 300% - Figure 5) than ANFO in the initial phase of expansion,
producing not just much finer rock fragments but also a larger amount of
finely fragmented rock.

dE (kJ/cc)

3
tnt

anfo

0
0

10

dV/Vo

Figure 5. Incremental energy release per unit volume of

TNT and ANFO as a function of incremental gas volume

The performance of ANFO in comparison with aluminised ANFO (90%

ANFO and 10% Al by mass, density 0.89g/cc) was also investigated.
Powdered aluminium is frequently used to improve the efficiency of
ANFO (Meyer, 1987). Aluminised ANFO delivers significantly more
energy into the rock than ANFO. The results of modelling confirm this,
as shown in Figure 6. Figure 7 shows that in the very early phase of
expansion aluminised Anfo releases 42% more energy than ANFO - this
ratio later drops to about 26%, followed by steady increase to about 35%.
The pressure decay function for both explosives is presented in Figure 8.
4

Energy (kJ/cc)

3
2
ANFO/Al

ANFO

1
0
0

12

16

20

gas volume ratio (V/Vo)

Figure 6. Energy releases for aluminised ANFO and ANFO as function

of the normalised gas volume

Energy release ratio

(ANFO- Al/ANFO)

1.45
1.40
1.35
1.30
1.25
1.20
0

normalised gas volume (V/Vo)

Figure 7. Ratio of energy release for Al-ANFO and pure ANFO as

function of normalised gas volume.

3500

Pressure (MPa)

3000
2500

ANFO/Al

ANFO

2000
1500
1000
500
0
0

gas expansion ratio (V/Vo)

Figure 8. Gas pressure decay for aluminised ANFO and pure ANFO as
function of the normalised gas volume
From Figures 7 and 8 it is clear that the additional energy released by
aluminised ANFO is primarily associated with initial high gas pressure.
Although the energy delivered later is also significant, it is being applied
to a much larger volume of rock and so the small change in energy
density per unit volume of rock is of little relevance for intensive rock
fragmentation.
Therefore, high energy explosives (high density, higher VOD) will
deliver more initial energy in the form of high pressure. This high
pressure will be restricted to the immediate vicinity of the blasthole,
within several hole diameters. as a result of such preferential energy
release there will be an increase in the amount of small fragments.
Although the amount of intermediate fragments will also increase, this
will not be proportional to the increase in fines. This change in the ratio
of fines to intermediates has been confirmed by experimental results (Liu
and Tidman, 1995). From experimental measurements of pressure
around a blasthole in different rock types with two different explosive
types (emulsion and ANFO), they found that the initial pressure for
emulsion is always higher than for ANFO, as expected. They also found
that the rate of decay of the pressure within a given distance from the
blasthole is higher for emulsion than for ANFO. This means that
emulsion will produce a higher fines/intermediate ratio than ANFO
within the region of intensive fragmentation. In general, this is shown as
a relative upwards shift of the fines portion of the size distribution curve.

In the highly fragmented region, failure occurs due to very high dynamic
stress which overcomes the strength of the rock matrix. The mean
fragment size resulting from the application of dynamic stress can be
estimated from the rock properties and the strain rate (Grady and Kipp,
1980):
L= (4.472*K1C/(dr*Vp*Sr))^0.666

(2)

Where:
L
K1C
dr
Vp
Sr

is the mean fragment size (m)

is the fracture toughness (Mpa.m^0.5)
is the rock density
is the propagation velocity of the elastic P-wave through the rock
is the strain rate (1/s)

In the absence of measurement very close to the blasthole, the strain rate
can be estimated from the rock properties, explosive properties and
blasthole radius.
Sr = (0.125*de*VOD^2)/(E*R/VOD)

(3)

or
Sr = (0.125*de*VOD^3)/(E*R)
Where:
Sr
de
VOD
E
R

strain rate
Explosive density
Velocity of detonation
Youngs modulus of elasticity of rock
blasthole radius

Typical rock properties are:

K1C (Mpa m^0.5)
Density (kg/m^3)
Youngs modulus (Gpa)
Vp (m/s)

1
2500
30
4000

The following explosive properties are assumed for three blasts:

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Blast
VOD (m/s)
Density (kg/m^3)

1
4000
800

2
5000
1000

3
5500
1250

For a blasthole radius of 100 mm, equation (2) gives mean fragment
sizes, very close to the blasthole, of:
Blast
Mean size (mm)

1
3.52

2
1.94

3
1.38

From this result, blast #3 will produce a more pronounced bimodal ROM
size distribution, yielding the largest amount of fine material and a
decrease in the relative amount of intermediate sized fragments.

Conclusions
As the density and VOD of the explosive is increased, the blasted rock
tends to be more fragmented. Due to the non-linear absorption of
explosive energy in the rock, and an exponential decrease of pressure
with distance from the blasthole, a more energetic explosive will tend to
create rock fragments with an increased amount of very fine fragments
relative to the intermediate sized fragments. In other words, although the
absolute amount of intermediate sized fragments may also increase, this
will be more than compensated by a disproportionably larger increase of
very fine fragments. The mean fragment size of the ROM product will
also decrease. As a result, the breakage rate within the SAG mill will
improve, resulting in higher throughput and productivity. Based on the
experience gained by JKMRC (1998) during the Mine to Mill project, the
increased cost of blasting is more than compensated by the cost reduction
achieved during crushing and grinding, resulting in a greater profit
margin.

References

Morrell, S. (1989). Simulation of bauxite grinding in a semi-autogenous mill and

DSM screen circuit. M.Eng. Thesis, University of Queensland (JKMRC).

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V.Rudenno, (1998). The Mining Valuation Handbook, Wrightbooks, Elsterwick.

Persson, P.A., Holmberg, R., Lee, J. (1994). Rock Blasting and Explosive
Selection, CRC Press, Boca Raton.
Fried, L.E., Howard, W.M., Soures, P.C. (1998). CHEETAH 2.0., User Manual,
LLNL.
Djordjevic, N. (2000). A Two-Component Blast Fragmentation Model, Proceedings
AusIMM, No. 1, 2000.
Meyer, R. (1987). Explosives, 3rd Edition, VCH, New York.
JKMRC, 1998. Optimisation of Mine Fragmentation for Downstream Processing,
Final Report. Submitted to Australian Mineral Industry Research Association
Limited.
Frannti, G.E. (1963). Seismic Energy from Ripple-fired Explosions. Earthquake
Notes, vol. Xxxiv
Grady, D.E. and Kipp, M.E., (1980). Continuum modelling of explosive fracture in
oil shale. Int. J. Rock Mech. Min.Sci. and Geomech. Abstr., vol. 17, pp. 147-157.