RESPEC Project

The Héming Cement operation requested RESPEC to evaluate their free-digging mining methods and determine if drilling and blasting would be a more economical mining alternative.  The project required RESPEC to evaluate optimal drill-and-blast designs through trial blasts, ensure that the chemistry of the raw material would not be affected by introducing drilling and blasting, and prepare a financial model to compare free-digging versus drilling and blasting.

Over a 6-week period, RESPEC was successful in implementing drill-and-blast designs on multiple benches with varying geology.  RESPEC also proved that the drilling and blasting would not affect the chemistry of the raw material and that implementing drilling and blasting would reduce operating costs significantly while avoiding large capital expenditures.  RESPEC is now involved in ensuring that CRH Eqiom Cement’s transition from free-digging to drilling and blasting is successful.