On 24 October BME, through its explosives and initiation systems unit BME Blasting Solutions, held a tour of its Losberg plant and shared how the facility manages to stay abreast of environmental and safety issues.
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The plant which makes, among others, electronic and non-electric detonators, surface and underground pumpable emulsions and cottage explosives, is situated at the farming and mining town of Fochville, within the Merafong City Municipality in the West Rand District Municipality in Gauteng, 90 km outside of Johannesburg.
“We are in the heart of the gold mining West Rand area. This facility originally started off with a cottage plant and, as BME grew, the plant also started diversifying into different product areas, which has led to currently having seven manufacturing facilities,” explained Dirk Voogt, GM of production and logistics at BME, adding that the facility also incorporates logistics and distribution functions, including 12 magazine buildings to service mainly the underground business.
The magazine buildings start at around 50 t, with several others at up to 250 t of explosives, with the accessories magazine buildings licenced for up to 14,000 cases of explosives.
Apart from the Losberg facility, BME also has the Dryden manufacturing plant in Delmas, Mpumalanga, which makes the Innovex bulk emulsion product and a facility in Rustenburg where the AXXIS electronic delay detonators are manufactured in a wide range of cable lengths.
Doing its bit for the environment
The use of used oil is a big part of the Losberg plant, said Voogt, adding that this is a tradition which started in 1984 when the company started operations.
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“At that stage we were focussing mainly on bulk emulsions, and we introduced the technology of cold pumpable emulsion to South Africa.
“This was the capability to replace the fuel component in the emulsion, which is normally a fuel such as diesel, with a recycled product. From the early days we have been employing the strategy of using used oil collected at our customers, the mines themselves.
“However some of this used oil is also collected from industries such as transport, including trucking companies and the railways. This is discarded engine oil we use as a carbon source in our emulsions.”
He added that over the years the company has been able to increase the portion of used oil it uses from 30% and 50% in the early days to 90% currently.
“This means 90% of the carbon that’s consumed in our explosives comes from a recycled source. This is carbon other people cannot use anymore.
“In helping us achieve all this we’ve also commissioned two used oil processing lines at our plant in Delmas, and between them we currently process just over 2 million L of used oil a month.
“On top of that we also purchase another 200 L to 300 L of used oil from third-party processors to meet the demand for our emulsion explosives.”
Voogt says BME also employs the services of collectors, typically community-based owner-managed small companies. “This allows us to increase our reach because used oil is generated all over South Africa by different economic sectors.
“We partner with small to medium sized businesses as our suppliers. We currently have 16 suppliers that work in the communities who collect the used oil on our behalf from generators such as mines, as well as garages where trucks and other equipment are services.
“They then bulk it up for us. We refer to these facilities as bulking points where we would then buy the oil off them. Once they’ve filled up their tanks, we then, in bulk, transport the oil from their facilities.”
Certified products
BME’s explosives products are all certified and licenced, said Voogt. They have certificates issued by the Chief Inspector of Explosives (CIE), residing within the South African Police Services and appointed by the ministry of safety and security.
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“They are all certified, whether it be cartridges, emulsions or detonators. The CIE certifies the products, their manufacture or the trade in them, and even their storage at all our facilities.
“Losberg has a number of facilities which assist us in doing all the general tests, as well as the qualification test. These are mainly operational and safety tests that one needs to do in order to apply for, and then eventually get, a ZAX certificate.”
He added that, for all its facilities, the company also uses the concept, that was recently introduced in legislation, of risk assessments or hazardous and operational studies facilitated by an authorised inspection authority certified by the department of labour to assist companies like BME with the risk assessments of their facilities.
Voogt also said the Losberg plant has been ISO accredited for 22 years. ISO 14001 for environmental, ISO 9001 for quality and ISO 45001 for health and safety.
The company is also a member of the Chemical and Allied Industries’ Association, the National Institute for Explosives Technology (NIXT) which looks after the safety and duty of care in the explosives manufacturing sector and SAFEX International which is an association of manufacturers of explosives worldwide.
“On NIXT and through SAFEX we share in learnings from not only incidents that we may have had within the mining industry, but also industry in general including both commercial and often military as well.
“That way we have access to the latest learnings as to how to manufacture and manage explosives in a safe and sustainable manner.”