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10/22/2008 -
Explo 2007 Blasting: Techniques & Technology Proceedings (2007)
ISBN 978-1-920806-70-5. AusIMM, Carlton South, VIC, Australia. 2007. CD-ROM, $60.
This is an explosive review. Or to be more precise this review is about the Blasting: Techniques & Technology Explo 2007 Conference.The conference took place in Wollongong, NSW, Australia. Dyno Noble is the principal sponsor. The following comes from the Dyno-Noble website. “Welcome to Dyno Nobel, a global leader in the commercial explosives industry with over 3,500 employees including some of the most highly trained blasters in the industry. With over a million tons of ammonium nitrate capacity and 36 manufacturing facilities in the United States, Australia and Mexico), our Engineering and Technology team supports domestic and export product sales as well as the use of our cutting edge technologies around the world.”
The material being reviewed is on a CD-ROM. The CD-ROM has twenty five papers as pdf files. One advantage of the CD-ROM format is portability. Another advantage is that a CD-Rom is easier to store than a book. Very likely, the cost of distributing information by CD-ROM is cheaper than the cost of printing conference proceedings. Undoubtedly, much good information is presented at conferences talks that are sparsely attended. Having a permanent record of conference talks is of great value as otherwise the results of extensive research will not be known to any but a handful of participants. Another obvious advantage of recording conference proceedings is that it is much cheaper to buy written material than to travel to far away corners of the globe for a conference however interesting. So while the author would have preferred to have had an all expense paid trip to Wollongong, NSW, Australia to attend the mining conference, a CD covering the goings on will have to suffice. Many mining and explosives experts would agree for this is the group for which this expo was intended.
Yet another advantage of a written format is that it is easier to cite. Here is an interesting example paragraph from a paper by R. Pesch and A. Robertson entitled “Blasting and Drilling for Underground Space”: “Australia has been slow in adopting the use of underground space as a part of our urban planning process. Australia has one of the highest levels of tunnel advance per capita per annum in the world, yet the use of underground space in our cities appears difficult for our planners and politicians to comprehend, not withstanding the general availability of good quality rock and contractor expertise in Australia. However, the lack of space in our urban areas is being highlighted as our major cities expand outwards and people and businesses gravitate towards city centres. Typical potential underground space uses include car parking, self-storage and archiving facilities, water storage, underground quarrying, small industrial facilities and another layer of traffic (electric and fuel cell) and services network.” As can be seen the language used is fairly straight forward. This comment applies to many of the other papers also.
The conference covers blasting from the perspective of a working mining engineer as distinct from that of a university professor. The titles of some of the conference papers show this. They follow: “The Use of Electronic Detonators to Access Additional Aggregate Reserves Adjacent to Subsurface Structures”; “Modern Blasting Using Electronic Detonators and the Total Drill and Blast Concept in Quarries”; Propagation of the South Wedge—Drill and Blast”; and “Reduction of the Blast Exclusion Zone at the Black Star Open Cut Mine”. Note that many of the papers address specific mines and quarries. Mine blasting is an involved and sophisticated subject as the Explo 2007 proceedings show.
For more on Explo 2007 Blasting: Techniques & Technology, visit the Australian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy web site. |
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