ABSTRACT

Bulk emulsion explosives have been used in tunnelling and mining operations worldwide but the first application in Singapore was at the Mandai underground caverns project. The system has many advantages over conventional explosives in the areas of safety, environmental aspects, material storage, charging productivity, blasting performance and overall cost savings. A continuous improvement program to monitor drilling and blasting practices will be examined. The goals of the program are: to improve safety, health and environmental care; to optimise the drilling and blasting patterns; to determine key performance indicators to allow improvements to be measured; and to reduce the overall cost per cubic metre of rock blasted. The successful implementation of bulk emulsion explosives at the Mandai storage caverns supports their use in future caverns projects. At present, more caverns for various purposes are planned for Singapore in the near future.