Hole Savers

Blasting and drilling operations form the backbone of the mining industry. Once drilled, the holes must be clear from debris as redrilling requires significant extra work. Hole Savers help maintain the holes' integrity while preventing the ingress of foreign materials.

Keep your hole clear with blow moulded FSP hole savers that are highly durable and can be used at any mining site. Available in many colours, they help highlight the drilled holes while keeping the debris out.

Why Do You Need To Use Hole Savers? Don't let your drilling operations go to waste. During mining operations, the holes can be deemed ineffective for many reasons.

Hole savers have become a vital element in the mining industry. What are the benefits of using hole savers?
Minimises the requirement of redrilling operations
Minimises collar fallback incidents
Helps retain the drilled depth
Improves the total blast quality
Ensures holes remain open even after nearby blast patterns
Protects explosives hoses during loading
Reduces the likelihood of lead damage
Improves the explosives column quality
Acts as a visual warning for drilled holes
Reusable device

Blast hole drilling is traditionally used wherever the mining company wants to explore the mineral composition or potential mineral yield of the area demarcated for their mining interests.
Blast holes are thus a fundamental step in the exploratory mining process, and can be employed in both surface mining operations and underground mining operations to varying degrees with varying effects or results.
Blast hole drilling can also be employed in quarrying endeavors.

Step 1 – Surveying the location
Before the blast hole drilling can begin, the proposed site needs to be inspected, and certain decisions need to be made with regards to the hole size/diameter, the type of drill or drills that will be required, etc.
These decisions will be based on the findings of the initial site survey.

The site survey will analyse the nature of the proposed mining operation, the nature of the rock, soil, ground, and/or mineral in question, and will impact the road going forward with regard to the blast hole drilling processes.

Step 2 – Researching the rock types and formations
Once the surveying processes have provided the surveyors with the raw data, they will turn this data over to researchers, who will then do the necessary research in order to plan effective and safe drilling patterns.

Step 3 – Plan drilling patterns
Once the researchers have determined the most effective, efficient, and safest way to proceed, the project manager will take over and draw up the necessary drilling plans.

Step 4 – Drilling the blast holes
This is where the actual blast hole drilling starts.
So by now all the machinery will have been procured (hired, acquired, what have you) and will be on-site, and ready to begin drilling the blast holes! The researchers' data will reveal how deep and how wide the diameter of the blast holes should be, as this will depend on the results of the survey.

In other words, on the nature of the mineral being mined, the nature of the surrounding rock/ground/soil etc.

Step 5 – Breaking up the rock
Once the blast holes have been drilled they will be packed with explosives. What kind, and the amount of explosives used will have been determined based on the research conducted; just like the size and depth of the blast hole was determined based on the research.
The explosives will then be remote-detonated in order to break up the rock.

Step 6 – Clean up process
Just like at a party, once the exciting part is over, somebody has to stay behind and clean up the mess! In underground mining, the tunnel will be cleared of debris, and the tunnel will be suitably reinforced.

Otherwise, as in open mine blasting, the rock will be excavated and hauled.

Henglong is one of the world's leading manufacturers of top quality percussive rock drilling tools.Our high-performance products include TOP hammer drill bits, extension and tunneling rods,integral steel,tapered rods,shank adapters,coupling,blast tapping furnace tools,self drilling anchor tools,coal mining tools and other drill tool accessories.HENGLONG is a flexible company that puts all its efforts to developing first class rock drilling tools especially button bits.HENGLONG provides a wide range of tools to mining,construction,tunneling,quarrying,and water well projects from China to all of the world.