ABSTRACT
Success of a Blast design in bench Blasting is judged by various factors of which the main is left-over of toe after completion of mucking operation. Formation of toe in Blasted benches reduces the efficiency of mucking/excavation machinery and thereby also affects adversely on the total productivity of the mine.
There are various factors that are responsible for the formation of toe. The main unavoidable element is the Geology of the area whereas the avoidable factor is basically Blast DESIGN which would include bench geometry, diameter & depth of drill hole, pattern of charging, initiation system etc. These factors/elements can be improved upon to achieve practically a toe-less Blast. Though this paper has summed up some of the practical data collected from the field, the inference can be more or less generalized for the optimization of toe in bench Blasting operations as a whole.
