Explosives company BME is expanding its footprint into Indonesia’s coal industry, where it hopes its pumpable emulsion explosives will benefit the industry positively.

“Indonesia’s vast opencast industry still overwhelmingly uses ammonium nitrate and fuel oil (ANFO) as its primary blasting medium. “We have, therefore, entered the market initially with our packaged explosives and electronic detonators, while exploring opportunities to offer the benefits of our emulsion products,” says BME Asia Pacific GM Umesh Chhika.

He adds that, with safety and performance being the key advantages that will drive the take-up of emulsions, the pumpable emulsion explosive is safer to transport and store as it is not explosive until sensitised in drillholes at the blast site.

Detonation

Moreover, Chhika mentions that the emulsion has a higher velocity of detonation than ANFO. As a result, there is more shock energy in the product, which means that the blast efficiency is better and improves fragmentation.

BME believes that, with Indonesia having a wet-terrain environment, the water-resistant qualityof the emulsion explosives will prove to be an advantage. Also, when the ANFO dissolves in water and becomes ineffective, emulsions are not affected by moisture to the same extent.

However, Chhika is concerned that the Indonesian ANFO and blasting services market is very competitive and has low labour costs as well as clients who are unaccustomed to the capital outlay required by a move to pumpable emulsion explosives.

“This being the case, we know that the capital costs are quickly recouped in efficiency, so we are convinced that there is scope for BME to demonstrate the value-adding benefits of our emulsion products and technologies,” he points out.

Chhika states the company already has a number of small-tier mining clients in Indonesia and is now putting a permanent technical adviser in place to add more value for existing clients and for new ones.