Austin Powder’s distributor Platinum Blasting Services detonated a record blast on June 30, 2022, using the company’s new E*STAR Electronic Blasting System Remote 2.5. The blast occurred at a large coal mine in Queensland, Australia. A total of 3,630 electronic detonators were consumed in the blast — a global record volume of electronic detonators fired in a single blast for Austin Powder.
Four E*STAR Remote 2.5 blast boxes were used to connect to and synchronously fire the 3,630 detonators inside 2,133 blast holes, loaded with a total of 437,385 kg (962,247 lb) of bulk explosives. “We greatly appreciate the efforts of the Platinum Blasting crew, especially Ben Faulkner as shotfirer in charge, Grant Merriman, second shotfirer, and Walker Seccombe as shift site supervisor,” said Christine Grealy, senior technical engineer for Platinum Blasting Services. “They all did a superb job ensuring such a large blast was successful.”
The Remote 2.5 system has the capability of synchronously firing up to 8 Remote Blast Boxes, each with 1,600 detonators connected, thus enabling a total of 12,800 detonators to be fired in a single blast.
“This record blast is a testament to the dedicated efforts of our research and development resources, field engineers, and technicians in bringing to our customers a system and solution that meets (and in some cases exceeds) our customer’s and end user’s needs,” said Campbell Robertson, global manager – electronic initiation systems. “We look forward to collaborating with our distributors and customers in firing larger and larger blasts to utilize the system’s capacity fully.”
