The blasting process in quarries and open-pit mines plays a very important key to achieving optimum performance from the mining company's technical and economic point of view. The magnitude of rock fragmentation is a crucial factor from an economic standpoint in any surface mining operation. The size of rock fragments directly affects drilling, blasting, loading, secondary blasting, and crushing expenses. However, the large number of parameters involved makes it difficult to control this operation. A number of studies have shown the benefits of taking into account all the parameters that affect the results of blasting. In particular, this study has highlighted the importance of designing a blast plan. The aim of our work is to study the influence of one of the controllable parameters (spacing between blastholes) on the results of blasting as a function of the parameters used in the quarry (Ain kebira cement limestone quarry, Setif - Algeria) in order to identify the most influential ones. This done by simulating blasting plans using the digital software Wip Frag and the Kuz-Ram model, in which we changed the spacing between the holes, in order to evaluate and monitor the size distribution of the blocks in the blasted piles. The results of analyses carried out using the Kuz-Ram method and image processing with Wip Frag software indicate that reducing the distance between blastholes ensured good rock fragmentation.

Rock size; blast design; spacing; KuzRam; Wip Frag