Cartridge loaders and hose sold in Australia, South America, South Africa, Ukraine, Turkey and Russia
As winter approaches and cold temperatures chill northern Canada, a North Bay company braces for surging demand for one of its signature mining products. Can-Blast Inc. manufactures a pneumatic loader for explosive cartridges.
Coupled with the company’s semi-conductive loading hose, the equipment is capable of loading boreholes at a rate of one cartridge per second.
“It’s known for its high-quality operation in Arctic conditions,” said Can-Blast’s chief operations manager Tyler Robb. When temperatures drop below -30 C and competitors’ loading hoses break into pieces as they’re pulled out of the box, miners will turn to Can-Blast.
“I’ll have mine sites phone me and say, ‘I want a whole pallet of your loading hose. Put it on the next plane out of North Bay. I don’t care how much it costs,’” said Robb. “We get a lot of orders when the ice roads up north start to freeze over.”
Can-Blast makes two types of loading hose - a smooth bore hose to load ANFO and a grooved-bore hose, designed to work with its cartridge loader.
Longitudinal grooves in the hose work almost like an air hockey table by flowing air around cartridges as they speed through the hose, centering the explosive and reducing friction.
Can-Blast has been fabricating and assembling pneumatic cartridge loaders in Canada for more than 30 years.
Tyler’s father, Tim, an employee who helped redesign the loader, bought the company in 2001 and remains its president.
Originally manufactured by Sweden’s Nitro Nobel, the loader was modified and improved to make it rugged, reliable, efficient and faster. Stainless steel replaced the nickel-plated brass alloy cartridge while aluminum flaps replaced the bronze alloy flaps that control airflow.
The air system was modified to improve operation, while thicker castings and tie rods through the castings improved durability and reliability.
Driven by compressed air, the Can-Blast loader is a great improvement over manual loading. When an explosive cartridge is dropped into the loader, it accelerates through a series of flaps into the semi- conductive loading hose and into the bore hole.
“It slits the casing on the cartridge as it exits the loading hose and packs it into the hole,” Robb said. “Everything you can do manually can now be done at one cartridge per second.”
The loader is simple to use. A miner can carry the cartridge loader while his partner carries the loading hose.
“It allows you to go into very tight areas very easily,” said Robb. Used primarily in underground mines - especially narrow vein gold mines - it’s also used in wet drilled holes, long hole blasting, retreat mining and pillar removal.
“The biggest advantage is you’re able to load up-holes,” says Robb. “You can load in any orientation. You can also use the equipment for dewatering holes before loading.”
Can-Blast sells the cartridge loader and its specially-manufactured hose in Australia, South America, South Africa, Ukraine, Turkey and Russia. About 60 per cent of its customers are in North America. When gold spiked to an alltime high three years ago, Can-Blast experienced its own gold rush. Its cartridge loaders were selling so briskly, Can-Blast couldn’t keep them on the shelf.
“The shipping crates were going out around the world faster than we could put them together,” said Robb.
Although sales slowed when the price of gold dropped, they are now trending upward since gold climbed above $1,300 an ounce.
Goldcorp, Vale, Barrick, Nystar, Orica, Dyno Nobel and Redpath are just a few of the company’s clients. Although explosives loading has been the company’s primary focus, it has diversified operations with an electrical manufacturing division.
“We manufacture all the control panels for the Boart Longyear exploration drills,” said Robb.
Can-Blast can make wiring harnesses, control panels and whatever an equipment manufacturer wants, said Robb, who collaborates with customers on design.
“If they have pre-existing designs, they can just send the schematics and material list and we can manufacture it for them,” he said.
After doubling the size of its North Bay facility, Can-Blast employs six people and can accommodate a larger volume of electrical manufacturing.
Now set up for mass production, Can-Blast aims to expand its business by pursuing opportunities in forestry and construction machine manufacturing.
