The Big Bang Theory: EVOBLAST Takes Blast Control to a New Level
In Krasnoyarsk, engineers demonstrated that explosive energy can be programmed – and blast-induced seismic vibrations reduced by up to half. The achievement is powered by a digital system that continues operating even where communications are unreliable.
Extracting gold is anything but a surface operation. Reaching the ore often requires moving enormous volumes of rock through drilling and blasting (D&B) operations – a powerful but highly demanding process. Yet conventional blasting methods are increasingly reaching their limits. Imprecise initiation timing, limited process control and, ultimately, significant losses caused by poor rock fragmentation all reduce operational efficiency. Under today's economic conditions, especially in geologically challenging deposits, those losses are increasingly difficult to justify. At the People. Gold. Technologies conference, EVOBLAST Group presented its answer to the problem (the conference itself is covered by the Promyshlennost Rossii project). The company's approach transforms blasting from brute force into a highly engineered process.
Everything Under BVR Control
Instead of dealing with the consequences of inaccurate blasts, EVOBLAST Engineering CEO Sergey Mozer proposes implementing a comprehensive digital ecosystem. At the heart of the approach are iDet electronic detonators, which provide virtually unlimited flexibility when designing blast initiation networks. That enables engineers to precisely control blast-induced seismic effects while achieving the target particle size distribution of the ore.
The centerpiece of the technology upgrade is the BVR Control platform. It functions as a digital twin of the entire blasting process, providing end-to-end oversight from project upload through post-blast analysis. The platform continues operating even when communications are completely unavailable – a common situation rather than an exception at remote gold mining operations. Engineers prepare blast designs in the office and upload them to the system, while field operators record drilling parameters for every blast hole offline. Once equipment returns to network coverage, all data are synchronized with the central server. This makes it possible to identify deviations between actual field parameters and design values in near real time and respond immediately. As a result, the influence of human error is minimized.
The Formula for an Ideal Blast
Just 10 to 15 years ago, the idea of programming the firing time of every blast hole with millisecond precision would have sounded like science fiction. Mining operations simply accepted excessive seismic vibration and unstable pit walls as unavoidable consequences of blasting. The problem was particularly acute in final wall zones, where excessive blast energy damaged the rock mass, increasing the risk of overbreak and bench slope failures.
The situation began to change with the arrival of the first electronic initiation systems. EVOBLAST's current approach, however, represents the most advanced implementation of the technology to date. Engineers can now do far more than assign individual delays – they can manage the entire blasting process as an integrated system. Blast-induced seismic effects are monitored using both surface and in-hole geophones, while specialized blast design methodologies are applied in final wall blocks to optimize D&B parameters. Combined with stress-relief delay intervals, electronic initiation systems have reduced seismic impacts by a factor of 1.5 to 2 compared with conventional initiation technologies.
As EVOBLAST Group Deputy Technical Director Ivan Kovalchuk explained, optimizing blasting parameters makes it possible to more than double the width of final wall blocks mined in a single production blast. That, in turn, increases excavation productivity by 10% to 15% while significantly reducing the number of blasting days. In effect, blasting has evolved from an inherently destructive force into a precisely controlled engineering tool.
Looking Inside the Bucket
The conference also showcased another notable development – a joint solution from EVOBLAST Group and Piklema. The EvoVision.Shovel hardware-and-software platform uses computer vision to analyze the particle size distribution of blasted rock directly inside an excavator bucket in real time.
EvoVision addresses a broad range of operational tasks, from monitoring fragmentation size distribution and floor elevation to high-precision bucket positioning. Most importantly, however, it provides a feedback loop for optimizing drilling and blasting operations. By delivering objective measurements of actual blast fragmentation, the system enables engineers to refine the design of subsequent blasts. The results are striking. Specific explosive consumption can be reduced by up to 25%, excavation productivity increases by as much as 8%, and drilling and charging costs decline by an average of 5%. The system is designed to operate in harsh climatic conditions, requires minimal maintenance and is compatible with most excavator models.
The solutions presented by EVOBLAST Group cover the entire drilling and blasting workflow – from precision initiation using electronic detonators and seismic monitoring to AI-powered fragmentation quality assessment. The company brings more than 30 years of experience in the Russian market, projects spanning from the Kola Peninsula to the Russian Far East, and a staff of more than 700 professionals. Its latest technologies demonstrate how modern mining is evolving. Increasingly, it is no longer defined simply by heavy equipment and hard labor, but by a combination of digital technologies, engineering precision and operational safety.
