O-Pitblast

The COVID-19 pandemic did not take kindly to many businesses across the globe, and organisations in the mining industry particularly faced several setbacks in productivity and sustainability. Due to the work’s nature, mining and blasting operations require intensive manual labour and physical proximity to equipment and gear on the site. This, combined with the fast-paced spread of the virus, inevitably led to many isolated outbreaks throughout the world, generating delays and extra costs in mining operations.

For O-Pitblast, a leading provider of the technologies for the most effective ways to optimize rock blasting for mines, quarries and civil contractors, these challenges faced by the industry did not hit seriously. The company, well-versed in the science of blasting, focused all its efforts towards helping clients overcome the crisis with cutting-edge and holistic mining solutions. “We saw customers delaying payments as well as cancelling site visits and training,” recalls Francisco Leite, COO of O-Pitblast. However, such impediments did not faze the company or its team of incredibly talented mining experts. O-Pitblast continued to provide the market with an extensive product portfolio of drilling and blasting solutions and also went the extra mile to help companies adapt to the new situation faster and more affordably. The company also added various new functionalities to their offerings that would enable remote working capabilities as well.Moreover, Leite talks about an exciting occurrence within the industry that left a strong impression on him.

“There was a spirit of unity among our customers where theyregrouped and adapted to overcome this difficult phase,” he adds. The incident indicated how O-Pitblast provides clients with a high level of care and attention in an emergency. It brings the same disruptive energy to the industry 24/7, striving to showcase that it is the ultimate technology organisation for blasting, boreholes, and mining solutions in the current marketplace.

Founded in 2016 and recently acquired by Forcit Group, O-Pitblast develops the most effective, customizable, and sustainable mining and blasting solutions for clients worldwide. The company is proud of a wide range of products that are specifically built to optimize mining operations. With the O-Pitblast Surface software, clients are empowered to plan, control, and improve blasting activities all in one place. The solution acts as a bridge that helps connect blast engineers with mining operations to discover new ways to design, measure, and evaluate various drill and blast operations. Furthermore, O-Pitblast’s O-PitApp is an intuitively built tool for iOS and Android that supports the collection of field data that includes information on explosives, drilling, and hole conditions. “This is a very disruptive application, minimising personal interaction and gathering data directly from the machine,” states Leite.

The company also grants clients the ability to identify KPIs better, manage costs, and address problems that may arise in the field through its O-PitAnalytics offering. The solution tracks all relevant real-world data from the field and combines it with the planned information to help improve optimization processes. Leite and his team further assist clients in circumventing several borehole challenges with the O-PitDev solution. It assists in modelling the shape of holes, tracks the real angle of holes in a 3D model, increases accuracy, prevents poor fragmentation, and effectively addresses flyrock and other such safety concerns. Each of these solutions is designed to function effectively regardless of extreme environmental conditions, and companies of all sizes stand to benefit greatly from the ease of use and access to O-Pitblast’s solutions and its extensive mining engineering prowess.

With such robust solutions and many other blast and mining services to offer, O-Pitblast stands among the leaders of mining technology solution providers today. Moving forward, the company intends to continue innovating and developing new products with its young and energetic team of professionals to be the go-to provider of blasting design and control technologies. “We are an ambidextrous company with a clear, ambitious target to be the most disruptive and accomplish our mission: to make drill and blast operations cleaner, more sustainable, easier, productive, and most importantly, safer for all,” concludes Leite.