Effect of Stemming Parameters on Blast-Induced Rock Fragmentation: A Case Study

The size of rock fragmentation plays an important role in the economic efficiency of surface mining operations. It directly affects the costs associated with drilling, blasting, loading, and crushing. This study aims to explore the influence of blast design factors such as blast hole length, stemming length (SL), and powder factor on rock fragmentation in a limestone quarry. Digital Image Analysis (DIA) was employed to determine the mean fragment sizes (MFS-X50) and maximum fragment size (MaxFS-X80) of the rock. Following each blast, several images of the entire muck pile were captured during the loading stages and subjected to fragmentation analysis using WipFrag software. The results obtained reveal that the optimal rock fragment size (MFS-X50, and MaxFS-X80) of rocks depends strongly on both blast design parameters and explosive factors.