WorldWide Drilling Resource

19 MARCH 2021 WorldWide Drilling Resource® Operational Excellence & Safety: Two Sides of the Same Coin Adapted from Information by BME Integrating safety firmly as part of operational excellence is the key to improved health and safety records in the mining workplace. Ramesh Dhoorgapersadh, general manager of safety, health, environment, risk, and quality at blasting and explosives leader BME, explained the company’s Safety for Life brand, which focuses on three bottom-line essentials: safety for people, the environment, and the commercial sustainability of the business. BME’s main goal is for all employees and contractors to go home in the same condition they arrived at work, having delivered quality service and products to the customer with no harm to the environment. Noted for its safety performance improvement over the past three years, BME has several safety interventions which contributed to this progress. Some of these are visual felt leadership, process safety, near miss reporting, driver awareness programs, and fatigue management. Dhoorgapersadh said, “The drive for safety is a never-ending process of analyzing even minor incidents and generating fresh ideas to reinforce our Safety for Life interventions. It is also vital to report and understand near misses, which are valuable indicators of where we can prevent incidents before they occur.” Enhanced safety has been an ongoing consideration in BME’s development of products and services to ensure the safe and efficient use of explosives in the field. Recently, the company launched their new Blasting Guide mobile app, allowing users to rapidly calculate and check blast designs. They also use electronic, rather than electric or nonelectric, detonators for firing blastholes. Electric detonators are susceptible to extraneous electricity, possibly causing unexpected detonation, and nonelectric detonators do not have circuit testing capability, so they may lead to misfires. In contrast, electronic detonators are safe from extraneous electricity except for lightning, and each detonator in the blasting circuit can be checked before firing to make sure it is functioning correctly. To minimize the risk of flyrock, BME uses specialized electronic and software tools that enable field measurement of blasthole deviations and measurement of the amount of rock in front of the blasthole. These field measurements are compared with the engineered blast design and adjustments are then made, if needed, to ensure a safe blast. BME incorporates a wide range of safety protocols into its manufacturing operations, aligning them with global best practices for chemical industries. Their business culture, indeed, blends operational excellence and safety as vital linked components for responsible business practices. EXB Electronic detonators equal safer blasting. May Issue Deadlines! Space Reservation: March 25th Display & Classified Ad Copy: April 1st

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