Ground vibration monitoring in mine blasting
Vibration monitoring company SEMAM carries out vibration measurements for mining in compliance with all standards and regulations required by Chile’s Environmental Authority.
Ground vibration measurements to prevent damage to the infrastructure
One of the pillars of the Chilean economy is the mining industry. Copper exports alone stand for more than one-third of Chile’s government income. A critical part of mining operations is blasting. SEMAM measures the ground vibrations resulting from the blasts to prevent damage to the infrastructure. Currently, Nicolás Acuña Caro, chief technical officer at SEMAM, is responsible for the ground vibration measurements in a small town at a copper mining site. Most of the Chilean mining is concentrated in the North of Chile, the Norte Grande region, and the Atacama Desert. SEMAM uses the Omnidots solution to carry out the measurements of the ground vibrations.
“The Omnidots solution is really easy to use. You can install the monitor on the ground or on the wall and the reports can easily be shared with our clients. We especially use the ‘Export to Excel’ feature very often.”
Nicolás Acuña Caro
SEMAM, Chile
In this project, Nicolás measures ground vibrations related to the mine blastings. He then determines whether or not the ground vibrations are in accordance with the local and environmental regulations. “SEMAM makes studies of vibrations for the government regulatory statement in Chile in accordance with the DIN-4150-3 (Vibrations in buildings - Part 3: Effects on structures), AS-2187 (Appendix J-Australian Standard for Human Response and Structures for ground vibrations), USBM (United States Bureau of Mines Structures Standard), among others.”
SEMAM uses three SWARM devices with batteries for this project to measure the ground vibrations at the copper mine site. “It is so useful for us that we can still do the measurements even when the SWARM cannot connect to any kind of network while in the desert.
The SWARM keeps measuring and storing its data until it comes online. At the mining site, we make a quick measurement, go to the office, download the data and then analyze it. The Omnidots solution is really easy to use. You can install the device on the ground or the wall, and the reports can easily be shared with our clients. We especially use the ‘Export into Excel’ feature very often,” explains Nicolás.
“Omnidots is a strong vibration monitoring solution. You can use it in most weather conditions and it is resistant to dust.”
Nicolás Acuña Caro
SEMAM, Chile
Stolen SWARM device
“We recently had a setback. A SWARM device was stolen. Luckily, all the SWARM data was still available in the Honeycomb platform. So we only needed to replace this SWARM device with a new one.” That SWARM is now useless for other people because Omnidots stopped the subscription for the stolen device. And now, when the device is turned on, we can collect accurate data on the positioning and timing of this monitor with its built-in integrated GPS sensor.
“For us, Omnidots is a great solution. This device is so useful for our clients—a real-time platform and reports we can easily share. In the past, we had many problems using accelerometers or similar laboratory analyzers. These were too sensitive to the weather and dust. You can better use these in a laboratory but not in a mine.”
Benefits of working with Omnidots' solution
For SEMAM, these are the biggest benefits of working with Omnidots: