Alyssa Kendir
Senior Consulting Engineer
North America
A short intro from me, your consultant …
Academic Background: Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines
Masters of Engineering in Mining, Geological, and Geophysical Engineering from the University of Arizona (in progress)
Technical Background: Licensed Professional Engineer; short, medium, and long range mine planning, reserve and resource estimating and reporting, drill and blast and blast movement consulting
What is my favorite aspect of the role? I like being able to see so many different operations and determine how our solution best fits into the workflow and mining process. I also love how many different types of people I get to meet and discuss all things mining with; so many different backgrounds and perspectives allows me to continue to grow as a mining engineer.
Why is accurately measuring blast-induced movement so important? The primary reason is economics; this industry invests so much money in the definition of the insitu ore deposit, but the accuracy of that data is severely compromised as soon as it’s blasted. Simply measuring that movement protects the integrity of the block model and makes sure that the mine has the best opportunity to achieve maximum recovery.
What are some of the most common misconceptions regarding blast movement? One of the most detrimental misconceptions is the idea that “small” movement isn’t something to worry about. The reality is that any movement of material during a blast has critical impacts on all downstream operations – sending ore to the waste dump and immediately losing any ability to recover it, sending unnecessary material to the crushing and processing circuit, causing greater wear and tear on the crushing cycle, using greater amount of chemical reagents than necessary, and generally spending entirely too much money on the wrong activities for the wrong material types.
Another common misconception is the idea that an average movement applied to an entire blast is sufficient – the reality is that movement across even the simplest and most well-designed blast is always going to be variable – when in doubt, just throw an extra BMM in the blast!
