Influences of joint systems on the fragmentation in small scale bench blasting

The investigation of this research is to study how jointed bench effects the blast fragmentation distribution. With the aim of this research there has been jointed blocks and nonjointed (reference) blocks comparision. The blocks were blasted in order of each rows in Erzberg Mine-Styria/Austria. The materials has been collected from each different types of blocks and they were carried to the laboratory for each block to do the sieving analysis. Finally all sieving analysis was compared to the analysis of the refence blocks. The result of this research will hopefully enable more efficient on blasting in jointed benches experiments to be developed, leading to better efficiency in blasting operations. Key Words: Bench blasting, Small scale blasting, Partical size distribution, Rock fragmentation