Orica Digital Solutions’ BlastIQ bringing granularity, transparency to drill and blast process
Two recent case studies from Orica Digital Solutions have highlighted the negative impact of fragmented systems and manual processes in the drill and blast process, while showcasing the ability of BlastIQ Underground to improve efficiency, transparency and decision making at mine sites.
While more than 15,000 km apart, the two underground mine sites in question shared several of the same challenges.
Hands off
Chelopech mine, owned by DPM Metals, was actively searching for solutions that would allow it to manage and digitise drill-and-blast activities to a hole-by-hole level of granularity and remove the reliance on paper-based recording. Even with a surface-based digital operations hub (SMART Centre) that centralises real-time monitoring and remote control of both underground mining and processing plant activities, plus leverages 100% underground Wi-Fi coverage, its stope blasting activity was still managed by hand.
Orica explained: “Traditionally, drill designs were printed and given to production drill operators, who recorded drilling progress, rock conditions and deviations by hand. These paper sheets were frequently damaged or lost, resulting in the loss of crucial information for drill-and-blast engineers and charge-up crews. Drill operators were also entering this information into a separate digital system for reporting purposes, but it did not flow into the subsequent drill-and-blast tasks.”
Stope preparation faced the same challenges, with charge-up crews relying on paper patterns to capture hole issues. This preparatory work is often wet and dirty, leading to unreadable or misplaced records, which impacted planning remediation work and blast sequence adjustments.
For the SMART Centre operators above ground, this critical information then had to be reviewed and entered manually for short-term interval planning and reporting purposes. Other areas of concern were the availability and accessibility of critical QA/QC information across the work groups, with operators often lacking complete or accurate information to carry out their daily tasks.
PLODding along
Rosebery Mine, wholly owned and operated by MMG Limited in Tasmania, Australia, was also hindered by paper-based drill-and-blast plans, often waiting over multiple shifts to get plans up from underground.
Efforts to maintain consistent performance while reconciling historical data for future optimisation were hindered by fragmented systems and manual processes. This has become an increasingly pressing problem as the mine continues to operate at depth with more detailed stope geometries and multiple mining fronts.
Orica explained: “Ground crews relied on handwritten Progressive Logs of Drilling (PLODs), preparation plans and charge instructions. This led to inconsistent data capture and delayed the transfer of critical information such as hole lengths, design details and contextual commentary to the engineering teams. Site‐level workflows at Rosebery required mid‐shift drill unit change‐outs. Drilling parameters and drilling configuration differences limited design compatibility, creating delays and friction during distribution and execution.”
These operational challenges were amplified by communication gaps inherent to the underground environment, according to the company, making it difficult for stakeholders to confirm stope readiness, monitor job progress and ensure accurate, on-schedule delivery.
Streamline and standardise
Sophie Clayton – Product Manager – BlastIQ Underground, Orica Digital Solutions, says BlastIQ Underground implementation is becoming increasingly typical across the industry – not just at Chelopech and Rosebery.
“Over the past several years, we’ve seen a significant shift from paper-based QA/QC processes to digital platforms, driven by the need for greater accuracy, traceability and real-time decision making,” she told IM.
As evidenced by the Chelopech and Rosebery examples, traditional paper-based QA/QC methods can be slow, fragmented and difficult to audit. Data is typically captured after the fact, limiting timely decision making and making it challenging to aggregate and analyse performance trends.
This is where digital solutions like BlastIQ Underground can “streamline and standardise” these processes, according to Clayton, enabling digital monitoring of compliance to design that provides engineers with greater control and visibility over blast quality.
“BlastIQ Underground also improves productivity through digital design sharing and adaptive charging plans and delivers near real-time visibility of preparation and charging activities,” she said, adding that cloud-based data storage further enhances auditability and continuous optimisation.
The BlastIQ Underground solution comprises three core components:
- The BlastIQ Underground desktop application, used to import and export drill and blast designs from a mine’s primary design software and ingest data from BlastIQ Mobile devices in the field;
- BlastIQ Mobile provides a simple user interface on a Windows mobile device for the underground operators to view the design and input measured data and comments against blast holes; and
- The browser-accessible BlastIQ web portal for data management, progress dashboards and applying tags and key performance indicators for downstream reporting, also accessible through the BlastIQ APIs.
‘Data-live’ in less than a day
After an initial on-site demonstration of the BlastIQ Underground solution, the DPM Chelopech team and Orica worked together to assess the benefits of digitalising QA/QC processes and integrating the system with Chelopech’s SMART Centre reporting systems.
Over 11 days, the on-site component of the Customer Success Program (CSP) was delivered. The first users were trained, and the system was live with operators recording data in less than 24 hours. BlastIQ leveraged the site’s existing extensive network infrastructure to wirelessly send and receive designs and recorded QA/QC data.
To record all drilling, hole preparation and loading activities, BlastIQ Mobile devices were deployed across the entire fleet of underground production drills and to the production shotfirers.
Orica explained: “A reduction in the reliance on paper was achieved by using the BlastIQ document storage functionality. This allows operators to access critical design documentation in the field and eliminates the need for printed paper copies. This documentation is version-controlled, and updated designs can be wirelessly pushed to the tablets in seconds over the mine network.”
The mine-wide Wi-Fi coverage enabled the BlastIQ Mobile devices to remain connected and continuously push operator recordings to the BlastIQ servers. This resulted in the DPM team having access to live, hole-by-hole data on drilling, hole preparation and loading activities. Underground operators always had full access to not only their task, but to all active drill and blast plans in the system, giving the team greater operational flexibility and awareness.
Using the BlastIQ Underground desktop application and web portal enabled the engineering team to track design progress and quickly isolate areas of concern for field rectification.
Finally, the DPM SMART Centre team were able to connect BlastIQ API endpoints for integration into their own planning and reporting systems, including Deswik.Ops. Clayton said APIs and other unique features in the software suite means BlastIQ can be securely and seamlessly integrated into everyday drill and blast operations regardless of the technologies used on site.
Such integration will enable the Chelopech team to begin removing existing digital capturing tools from their production drills and rely solely on BlastIQ Mobile devices.
Digital capture
In Tasmania, the BlastIQ suite was used to centralise all critical information designs, drilling and loading records, initiation files, environmental data and supporting media, ensuring visibility and control across the entire drill and blast cycle.
By digitalising the drill-and-blast process MMG Rosebery has greatly reduced the overall QA/QC cycle time from drill preparation to charge. This was achieved by limiting the number of visits to surface to communicate plans and changes, allowing engineers to review live data from the surface via BlastIQ Underground.
Through the implementation of the BlastIQ Underground suite of applications provided by Orica Digital Solutions, MMG Rosebery has digitised 165 blasts, capturing data for 9,908 holes and a total of 84,949 drilled metres. As of April 2026, 11,277-hole actual inputs have been digitally recorded. Instances where holes were re-visited and prepared more than once were also collated electronically, highlighting and enabling detailed storyline analysis.
“This digital record directly supports the accurate delivery, application and recording of 140,760 kg of Subtek
bulk explosives, all logged digitally at the job site,” Orica said. “Together, these figures represent the complete, digitally-captured drill, preparation and charging process at MMG Rosebery.”
Additionally, BlastIQ Underground enabled drill‐specific adjustments to be made and communicated live between drillers and engineers, reducing downtime and improving operator productivity. By pushing and pulling updated designs through the cloud to mobile tablets, changes were implemented in near real time at the job location, reducing resource wastage, improving cross‐department efficiency, increasing equipment utilisation and contributing to increased drilled metres per shift.
Coordination, accountability and decision making
By connecting drill crews, blasting teams and engineers in a single workflow, BlastIQ can reduce handover friction and create a shared, transparent view of performance, according to Craig Buchanan, Lead – Technology Commercialisation at Orica Digital Solutions.
“Time-stamped data and centralised records help build accountability and trust, while the ability to analyse data over time supports continuous improvement and better engineering decisions,” he told IM. “Overall, this translates into safer, more efficient and more disciplined drill-and-blast execution.”
At Chelopech specifically, Buchanan says the BlastIQ journey is far from over.
“The DPM team will continue to embed and integrate BlastIQ Underground into their existing reporting systems and workflows to leverage the data recorded in BlastIQ to drive continuous improvement, process standardisation and unlock operational efficiencies,” Buchanan said. “Orica Digital Solutions will continue to collaborate and support the DPM teams through our highly regarded CSP to ensure that the BlastIQ Underground solution continues to deliver value to their operations and that future updates are rolled out seamlessly.”
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