The digital world is transforming everything these days. Even blasting on a mine site.
Gone are the days where every controlled explosion could deliver a range of unanticipated outcomes. Today the team at Orica Digital Solutions is replacing chaos with digital order through a portfolio of high-tech products.
From blast design and execution to faster, more accurate orebody analysis, all the way to mine simulation, Orica Digital Solutions aims to connect the physical and digital worlds of a mining operation.
In doing so, the company has developed a set of tools to help users understand and optimise their operations at every step of the value chain.
Orica’s offerings are playing a particularly important role in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) mining sector, where remote locations, challenging terrain, and complex logistics create unique operational demands that traditional methods struggle to address effectively. Such conditions require precision planning and execution that can only be achieved through digital tools and real-time data analysis.
“Across PNG, there’s growing appetite for digital mining solutions, particularly those that improve safety, efficiency, and visibility across remote or hard-to-access operations,” Orica Digital Solutions’ head of software product and development Matthew Craft told PNG Mining.
“That allows PNG mining operations to design blasts according to performance objectives and then present drill and blast insights for continuous blast optimisations.”
Data-driven blasting
At the heart of Orica’s digital revolution lies BlastIQ, a cloud-based platform that serves as the central nervous system for modern blasting operations. This next-generation system integrates data and insights from digitally-connected technologies across the entire drill and blast process, providing operators with unprecedented visibility and control over their operations.
The system’s cloud-based architecture is particularly valuable for PNG mining projects. The platform seamlessly connects geoscientific data, blast modelling, and design information with field operations data, enabling continuous improvement of blasting outcomes by learning from each operation and applying those insights to future blasts.
“BlastIQ delivers a connected ecosystem that digitises and integrates every step of the drill and blast process, improving efficiency, control, and blast outcomes,” Craft said. “For PNG miners, the benefits are tangible: improved fragmentation, reduced explosives waste, fewer delays, and enhanced safety.”
Revealing blast movement
While BlastIQ manages the process, another Orica Digital Solutions product revolutionises how miners understand blast outcomes. OREPro 3D makes rock movement visible in three dimensions by accurately modelling blast movement and providing situational awareness that was previously impossible to achieve in PNG’s complex geological environment.
Developed through partnerships with major mining companies globally, OREPro 3D addresses one of mining’s most persistent challenges: understanding exactly how rock and ore move during blasting. The software uses readily available mine data as inputs, including blast designs, in-situ block models, and post-blast muckpile surveys. Sophisticated algorithms then replicate movement dynamics throughout the entire blast volume, calculating precise vectors that show how material has moved.
Craft said prior to this kind of technology, miners had to rely on assumptions from pre-blast designs, and these often resulted in misaligned dig lines, ore loss, dilution, and lower recovery rates.
“With OREPro 3D, those assumptions are replaced by real data, improving the accuracy of ore polygons and dig plans,” he said.
Optimising the end result
Understanding blast movement provides crucial insights, but the true measure of blasting success lies in what happens next: analysing and optimising rock fragmentation to maximise downstream efficiency.
FRAGTrack, a state-of-the-art fragmentation measurement tool, provides rapid insights into blasting outcomes through advanced vision technology that improves productivity via detailed fragmentation profile analysis.
In PNG mining operations, where material must often be transported significant distances for processing, fragment size distribution directly impacts operational efficiency and costs. FRAGTrack’s automated analysis capabilities remove the guesswork from fragmentation assessment, providing precise data that enables blast optimisation for specific downstream requirements.
The technology integrates seamlessly with Orica’s broader BlastIQ platform, creating a feedback loop where fragmentation results inform future blast designs. This continuous improvement approach proves particularly valuable for PNG operations, where optimising every aspect of the extraction process directly impacts the economic viability of challenging mining projects.
Craft said fragmentation analysis was critical for PNG miners, directly impacting haulage, crushing and mill performance.
“FRAGTrack provides continuous, objective fragmentation data in drill and blast operations, directly impacting downstream processes such as hauling, crushing, and milling,” he said.
Continuous monitoring
Optimised blast outcomes and fragmentation analysis drive operational efficiency, but all of these advances depend on a foundation of safe operations. GroundProbe, now part of Orica Digital Solutions’ Geosolutions, brings world-leading geohazard monitoring capabilities that provide essential safety infrastructure for PNG’s harsh mining conditions.
Vice President of Geosolutions, Orica Digital Solutions, David Noon said GroundProbe was already being used across several local sites.
“In PNG’s rugged terrain, high rainfall and complex geology, expert oversight and real-time alerts are not just helpful, they’re essential to preventing failures and meeting increasingly regulation safety standards,” he told PNG Mining.
Noon said that together, these integrated technologies represent more than digital advancement for PNG mining projects.
“They’re transforming how miners approach efficiency, safety, and sustainability,” he said. “That adds up to a clearer view from all angles of an operation. It’s about turning data into insight, and insight into action.”
This feature appeared in the August–September 2025 issue of PNG Mining.
