BME safer blasting in hot reactive ground: key controls for drill‑and‑blast engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

First reported on International Mining – News
30 Second Briefing
Hot blastholes and reactive ground conditions are emerging as a critical safety and performance issue in large-scale open pits, prompting BME and its General Manager of Technology and Innovation, Nishen Hariparsad, to advance specialised blasting solutions. The company is focusing on formulations and initiation systems that remain thermally stable in elevated hole temperatures and chemically compatible with sulphide-rich or carbonaceous strata, where conventional emulsions can prematurely react. For drill‑and‑blast engineers, this signals growing need for rigorous temperature logging, reactive ground testing and tighter controls on sleep times and loading sequences.
Technical Brief
- Hot holes and reactive ground conditions are becoming an increasingly significant challenge for mining operations, with the potential to compromise safety, disrupt production and undermine blast performance.
Our Take
Across recent coverage, BME’s work on AI-enabled blasting and electronic detonators suggests the company is positioning itself as a full-stack blasting systems provider, where safer performance in hot and reactive ground becomes a differentiator rather than a niche add-on.
The SAFEX International Congress presentation by BME’s SHERQ leadership, also in our database, indicates that safety in energetic materials is being framed by BME as a strategic pillar; advances in hot-ground blasting will likely be leveraged in that narrative to win technically challenging contracts.
With 1237 Mining stories and 2449 tag-matched pieces in our database, relatively few focus on blasting products at this level of technical detail, so BME’s repeated appearance signals that explosives and reagent suppliers are becoming more visible in discussions about mine safety and productivity trade-offs.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
Related Articles
Related Industries & Products
Mining
Geotechnical software solutions for mining operations including CMRR analysis, hydrogeological testing, and data management.
CMRR-io
Streamline coal mine roof stability assessments with our cloud-based CMRR software featuring automated calculations, multi-scenario analysis, and collaborative workflows.
HYDROGEO-io
Comprehensive hydrogeological testing platform for managing, analysing, and reporting on packer tests, lugeon values, and hydraulic conductivity assessments.
GEODB-io
Centralised geotechnical data management solution for storing, accessing, and analysing all your site investigation and material testing data.