NON-DETONATING CHARGES IN POLYMER HOUSINGS FOR SMOOTH SPLITTING OF ROCK BLOCKS DURING PRIMARY EXTRACTION AND SECONDARY CUTTING

In some cases, during the extraction of certain mineral resources, industrial explosives are not sufficiently safe for the environment in terms of generated shock waves, toxic gases, seismic waves, scattering and vibrations. The main reasons for these harmful effects of the explosion are the speed and the mechanism of the chemical reaction of explosive decomposition. The authors have focused their research on a variety of fast-combusting high-energetic compositions, that can fully replace the widely used detonating explosives in the extraction and secondary processing (cutting) of large stone blocks. Samples from polymer containers filled with non-detonating compositions, based on waste gunpowder and metal-containing pyrotechnic mixtures were subjected to field tests. The experiments were performed in real conditions on stone blocks with hardness f = 16 according to the Protodyakonov rock strength scale. Depending on the lengths of the blast holes, different charge designs were used.