As African mines commonly operate in harsh conditions that increase the risk of system failure and safety incidents, innovative explosives management systems and adherence to demanding safety regulatory frameworks become increasingly important.

To address these challenges, blasting solutions provider BME designed its flagship electronic blast initiation system, AXXIS Titanium, with an African context in mind, ensuring reliability and safety while maintaining operational continuity, even in demanding environments.

“We have been very deliberate about empowering our customers with technologies that solve their needs. Hence, our development has worked to empower the AXXIS product with a feature set to help our customers operate more effectively, efficiently and safely,” BME technology and marketing GM Nishen Hariparsad tells Engineering News & Mining Weekly Africa Edition.

Designed and manufactured locally, AXXIS Titanium has been successfully deployed across key mining jurisdictions in sub-Saharan Africa, including South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as in West African countries.

Hariparsad notes that the system has demonstrated strong versatility across a range of commodities and mining methods, including openpit operations in coal, iron-ore, gold, platinum, copper, manganese and diamonds, as well as underground environments mining a multitude of respective geologies.

In South Africa, AXXIS Titanium continues to support large-scale chrome and coal operations successfully.

Additionally, the company notes that its strong regional presence enables rapid on-site support.

Features and Benefits

To ensure safer blasting on African mines, AXXIS Titanium has been engineered with multiple layers of protection and advanced safety features.

Notably, the system’s high-precision timing enables optimised delay sequencing, improving rock fragmentation and delivering a more uniform particle size distribution for customers. This reduces the energy required for downstream crushing and milling, lowering overall processing costs.

Hariparsad adds that this level of precision also allows for better control of blast dynamics, limiting vibration, airblast, fly rock and overbreak. 

As a result, operations can reduce risk, improve environmental performance and support compliance with regulatory limits and broader environmental, social and governance expectations, particularly near communities or sensitive infrastructure.

Hariparsad explains that the system’s triple-redundant fire switches and encrypted blast commands ensure initiation occurs only under strictly controlled and verified conditions, eliminating the risk of unintended initiation events.

The dual capacitor design separates logic and firing circuits, providing an additional safeguard against stray energy and interference.

Additionally, the company notes that the over-moulded housing delivers exceptional durability, protecting components against dynamic shock, ground currents, lightning, electromagnetic pulses (EMP) and electrostatic discharge (ESD) – risks commonly encountered in openpit operations across the continent.

He notes that safety in blasting has less to do with automation and more to do with strict safety protocols supported by the best technology available. 

In this regard, the latest generation of AXXIS Titanium incorporates a Swiss-designed application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip in its detonators, providing additional internal safety gates against stray current and lightning, enhancing safety levels and enabling inherently safe logging and testing.

Combined with a wide operating temperature range and robust cabling, he says the system maintains consistent performance in extreme environmental conditions.

Further, the company notes that AXXIS Titanium supports initiation of up to 20 000 detonators in a single blast, enabling mines to execute larger blasts with fewer tie-ins and reduced complexity.

“Larger blasts allow our customers to maximise efficiencies from their mining operations. This allows for more effective planning, hauling, muck piling and crushing, thereby improving productivity, reducing downtime and lowering the cost per tonne mined,” he says.

The system’s ultralow energy consumption further enhances efficiency, allowing each blast box to handle a high number of detonators without compromising performance. In high-volume sectors such as copper, gold, chrome and coal, this scalability delivers significant operational advantages, Hariparsad notes.

He explains that AXXIS Titanium is designed to streamline blasting operations through its multifunctional logger, or blast box, which integrates programming, testing, firing and fault-finding into a single device. This reduces the need for additional equipment and simplifies on-site processes.

The company says the system integrates seamlessly with Blastmap design software and BME’s cloud platform, enabling efficient blast planning, real-time data capture and post-blast analysis. This allows engineers to continuously refine blast designs and improve performance.

Continuous Innovation

Meanwhile, Hariparsad notes that BME’s research and development programmes are closely aligned with operational realities, incorporating direct feedback from mining customers across Africa.

This ensures that innovations are practical, relevant and responsive to real-world challenges, from environmental conditions to operational efficiency requirements.

“BME works collaboratively with mine operators, blasting contractors, original-equipment manufacturers and regulatory bodies to co-develop solutions tailored to African conditions.

“These partnerships ensure that technologies, such as AXXIS Titanium, are both technically robust and operationally future-fit to cater for customers’ varying operating conditions.”