Controlled Blasting in an open-pit mine for improved slope stability

A case study is presented where a controlled blasting programme (presplitting) was adoptedin an open-pit copper mine in order to improve the stability of the resulting cut slopes. The aim was to reduce over break and minimize damage to the final pit walls from production blast. The use of presplitting allowed considerably higher benches to be adopted with much steeper overall slope angles. The extra cost of presplitting was fully justified by the improved face stability and the resulting reduction in overburden quantit