Extraction

Precise drill and blast operations lay the foundation for cost-effective mining as they influence the quality of most downstream mining activities.

Drill & Blast

Our capability spans technical, drilling, plant and equipment, product supply, and explosives loading. We tailor solutions to each mine’s requirements, challenges and opportunities, supported by the latest third-party and our proprietary design and execution technologies.

Our integrated approach between our experienced, site-based drill and blast engineers, operators and maintainers, in-house drill and blast specialists, multi-disciplinary technical team and strategic partners provides the final piece in maximising resource recovery and optimising productivity and production – safely and consistently.

Load & Haul

We deliver fully resourced load and haul solutions across diverse commodities, pit sizes, complexities, methods and conditions. We optimise safe, efficient haulage through expert haul road design, fleet scheduling and management.

Our experienced field teams also draw on our extensive in-house technical and functional support for faster turnaround in problem solving and service delivery. Whether establishing a new mining operation or optimising an existing mine, our goal is to empower cost-effective resource recovery and ongoing success.

Case Study

Pioneering through-seam blasting at
Mount Owen

Thiess’ advanced terrace mining and through-seam blasting at Mt Owen Mine in Australia, successfully overcame the deposit’s complexities – delivering efficient excavation, higher resource recovery and reduced costs.

The deposit comprised multiple, often steeply-dipping, coal seams of in thicknesses between 0.3–11m. Thiess worked with specialist suppliers on an electronic initiation system that enabled larger blasts with more seam intercepts, and longer delays between smaller seam interburdens, to reduce thin coal seam loss. With high precision drill guidance and strata recognition, the team achieved lower disruption blasts to improve coal flow scheduling and resource recovery.

Without through-seam blasting, working on the steeply-dipping strata would have made mining at Mt Owen uneconomical and significantly shortened the mine life.