Assessing the drilling and blasting parameters to minimize the impact of ground vibrations to the surrounding environment.

Abstract

This report entails assessing the drilling and blasting parameters to minimize the impact of ground vibrations to the surrounding environment at Seyani. International Company Quarry in Buntaba village, Kyampisi sub county, Mukono District. Blasting is an economical process for detaching rocks from their parent rock. Ground vibrations is the negative energy as a result of blasting and these affect the infrastructure in the nearby community thus cracking their residential houses and affecting their poultry. This project optimizes the parameters to minimize the effects of blasting through the ground vibrations monitoring program which was designed to ease the blasting job. by optimizing the drilling and blasting parameter. The parameters were analyzed and five parameters contributed to the vibrations which. include; burden, spacing, stemming, hole diameter and charge amount. Ground vibrations were found out to be in the range of 7-10mm/s which is above the USBM standard. A ground vibrations monitoring. program was developed with the aid of visual basic programming language linked to excel for a blast management information system. The program can be adopted in the mining industry especially for companies that carryout blasting and ensures that productivity is at its most.