Orica successfully trials WebGen 200 tech at Blair Athol

Breaking, Drilling & Blasting / October 26, 2022
By Guy Woodford
The new WebGen 200 suite of fully wireless initiating systems

Building on the success of over 4,000 WebGen 100 blasts worldwide, Orica’s WebGen 200 technology continues its successful entry into the high-volume surface mining market.

WebGen technology provides for groups of in-hole primers to be wirelessly initiated by a firing command that communicates through hundreds of metres of rock, water, and air. This completely removes constraints often imposed by the requirement of a physical connection to each primer in a blast and, importantly, allows us to remove people from harm’s way.

Engineered to deliver robust safety and reliability, WebGen 200 has been built with enhanced capabilities, security and versatility, ensuring it meets the extreme mining conditions faced by surface and underground customers. WebGen 200 harnesses digital technology to allow advanced features, including digital inventory management, an improved user interface and increased quality assurance. The Alpha trial programme is a comprehensive verification process and validation product testing in field, and Orica has hit some successful milestones recently with Alpha trials for their WebGen 200 Surface primer in USA, Chile and now in Australia, with Blair Athol being the first coal mine globally to trial the new generation technology.

Orica Senior Manager WebGen Commercialisation, Rhys Patterson, said: “We’re excited about what the future holds for the industry with WebGen 200 as we progress towards commercial release of WebGen 200 Surface, which is expected in early 2023. The success of the programme would not be possible without the trust and willingness of our value customers to partner with us”. Orica closed out Alpha trials of its second generation fully wireless initiating system for the underground market in September. Orica’s underground customers around the world have started to transition to the WebGen 200 Underground Pro, with customers reaping the benefits of adopting this game-changing technology. The hardware, software and the WebGen 200 units come together as a versatile and reliable service offered by Orica.

WebGen 200 will be available in four product variants and include a wider range of booster weights, opening new segments, applications and opportunities in both surface and underground mining. The complete product range now includes the WebGen 200 Surface, WebGen 200 Surface Pro, WebGen 200 Underground Pro, and WebGen 200 Dev.

WebGen 200 Surface Alpha Blast Blair Athol video on YouTube - https://youtu.be/zdrlL4pAH14

For more information on companies in this article