ABSTRACT
The main objective of fragmentation with explosives is to carry out the operation at the lowest possible cost, and at the same time comply with the technical specifications and safety conditions required. This chapter analyzes the economical aspects of drilling and blasting in open pit production operations as well as the methods of predicting fragmentation and the basis of calculation for the construction of an economical model for optimization of the total costs of the operation. An additional cost must be taken into consideration due to secondary fragmentation of boulders or blocks of rock that cannot be handled by the loading, haulage and crushing equipment. The optimization of fragmentation can be carried out by applying engineering systems to the creation of a global model of optimization. The model is based upon the supposition that all parameters intervening in the calculation of the burden and prediction of the fragmentation are considered known or with the most probable values.
