Ground vibration, air vibration, fly rock, undesirable displacement and fragmentation are some inevitable side effects of blasting operations that can cause serious damage to the surrounding environment. Peak Particle Velocity (PPV) is the main criterion in the assessment of the amount of damage caused by ground vibration. There are different standards for the determination of the safe level of the PPV. To calculate the permissible amount of the explosive to control the damage to the underground structures of Gotvand Olya dam, use was made of sixteen 3-component (totally 48) records generated from 4 blasts. These operations were recorded in 3 directions (radial, transverse and vertical) by four PG-2002 seismographs having GS-11D 3-component seismometers and the records were analyzed with the help of the DADISP software. To predict the PPV, use was made of the scaled distance and the Simulated Annealing (SA) hybrid methods. Using the scaled distance resulted in a relation for the prediction of the PPV; the precision of the relation was then increased to 0.94 with the help of the SA hybrid method. Relying on the high correlation of this relation and considering a minimum distance of 56.2 m to the center of the blast site and a permissible PPV of 178 mm/s (for a 2-day old concrete), the maximum charge weight per delay came out to be 212 Kg.

Rock fragmentation is one of the desired results of rock blasting. So, controlling and predicting it, has direct effects on operational costs of mining. There are different ways that could be used to predict the size distribution of fragmented rocks. Mathematical relations have been widely used in these predictions. From among three proposed mathematical relations, one was selected in this study to estimate the size distribution curve of blasting. The accuracy of its estimates was compared to that of the RR (Rosin-Rammler), SveDeFo (The Swedish Detonic Research Foundation), TCM (Two Component Model), CZM (Crushed Zone Model), and KCO (Kuznetsov – Cunningham - Ouchterlony) relations. The comparison included assessing the accuracy (Regression, R) and precision (Mean Square Error, MSE) of the best possible fit between the mathematical relations to estimate the cumulative distribution of fragmented rocks that result from rock blasting in open pit mines (Miduk Copper Mine, Sirjan Gol-e-Gohar, and Chadormalu Iron Mines) using image analysis technique. The results showed that the power hyperbolic tangent function can estimate size distribution of hard rock fragmentation with more uniformity in fine and coarse-grained sizes (unlike soft and altered rocks with the non-uniform distribution in these regions), more accurately and with higher precision. Also, unlike the KCO, the absence of a second turning point for the largest block dimensions (Xm) in the proposed function, can guarantee the accuracy of estimations related to any range of inputs. Finally, due to the ability of the proposed relation to accurately estimate rock fragmentation distribution caused by blasting, the uniformity coefficient required for the relation is provided by a linear combination of the geometric blasting parameters, where R=0.855 and MSE=0.0037.

Ground vibration is an undesirable outcome of an explosion which can have destructive effects on the surrounding environment and structures. Peak Particle Velocity (PPV) is a determining factor in evaluation of the damage caused by an explosion. To predict the ground vibration caused by blasting at the Gotvand Olya Dam (GOD) spilling basin, thirty 3-component records (totally 90) from 19 blasts were obtained using 3 VIBROLOC seismographs. Minimum and the maximum distance from the center of the exploding block to the recording station were set to be 11 and 244 meters, respectively. To evaluate allowable safe vibration and determining the permissible explosive charge weight, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) was employed with Back Propagation (BP) and 3 hidden layers. The mean square error and the correlation coefficient of the network in this study were found to be 1.95 and 0.995, respectively, which compared to those obtained from the known empirical correlations, indicating substantially more accurate prediction. Considering the network high accuracy and precision in predicting vibrations caused by such blasting operations, the nearest distance from the center of the exploding block at this study was 11 m, and considering the standard allowable vibration of 120 mm/sec for heavy concrete structures, the maximum permissible explosive weight per delay was estimated to be 47.00 Kg. These results could be employed in subsequent safer blasting operation designs.

The mounted semi autogenous (SAG) mill in the processing unit of the Midouk copper mine which consumes 35% of operational costs has a critical size within the range of 2.5–5 cm. To optimize the energy consumption in the milling unit of the mine, the data have been collected from 36 blast blocks. These blocks are selected in the main ore body area to monitor their effects on energy consumption in the milling unit. Owing to the dependence of mill energy consumption on the feed strength properties, a criterion for mill performance (MPC) has been defined and compared with the obtained dynamic hardness of seven specific blasting blocks. The results show a linear relationship with the accuracy of R² = 0.91 between the dynamic hardness and the MPC. For mines that use SAG or AG mills, the energy consumption for crushing the unit weight of feed depends on their dynamic stiffness.