Located in Bulgaria, Chelopech mine is DPM Metals’ flagship operation. The underground copper-gold-pyrite mine has been transformed by DPM Metals into a world-class operation, leading in environmental and sustainability performance.

As a leader in digital innovation, Chelopech has achieved significant improvements in efficiency, environmental performance, and worker safety. The mine has 100% reliable underground Wi-Fi coverage at a depth of 600
metres.

DPM Metals’ SMART Centre at Chelopech mine is a surface-based digital operations hub that centralises real-time monitoring and remote control of both underground mining and processing plant activities. Established in 2018, it leverages 100% underground Wi-Fi coverage, Sandvik Auto Mine tele-remote equipment, and advanced data analytics as part of DPM's broader Intelligent Mine initiative.

As part of the company digital vision, DPM Chelopech were actively searching for solutions that would allow them to manage and digitise drill-and-blast activities to a hole-by-hole level of granularity and remove the reliance on paper-based recording.

Of key importance was providing increased visibility and accessibility of critical QA/QC information across different workgroups and enabling its integration into their SMART Centre for both short-term interval control and long-term analysis.

"BlastIQ is a great addition to DPM Metals digital toolbox. The need for a tool that connects both operations and engineering, plus giving management the option to track in real time the progress of the tasks, is very valuable. We were in need of BlastIQ, without even knowing it. Thanks to Orica and Craig`s team, now we have it recorded and in time it will be a valuable tool to establish baselines for different locations, tasks, and even team performance. This will make decision-making for the engineers a lot easier and will help establish easier and better work conditions for the crews. Knowing that all the information put in BlastIQ is preserved with date and time, will make workers accountable. This will help establish a more trusting relationship between all the levels of the organisation."

Stefan Popov
Mine Drilling and Blasting Engineer, DPM Chelopech

The situation

Despite Chelopech already using multiple on-site technologies for capturing operational metrics, one critical step still relied on a paper-based manual process: stope blasting. As a fundamental part of underground mining, this activity demands clear visibility at every stage to ensure efficient and reliable operations.

Traditionally, drill designs were printed and given to production drill operators, who recorded drilling progress, rock conditions, and deviations by hand. These paper sheets were frequently damaged or lost, resulting in the loss of crucial information for drill-and-blast engineers and charge-up crews. Drill operators were also entering this information into a separate digital system for reporting purposes, but it did not flow into the subsequent drill-and-blast tasks.

Stope preparation faced the same challenges. Charge-up crews relied on paper patterns to capture hole issues, but prep work is often wet and dirty, leading to unreadable or misplaced records. Without this data, planning remediation work and adjusting blast sequences became more difficult and inefficient.

For the SMART Centre operators, this critical information then had to be reviewed and entered manually for short-term interval planning and reporting purposes. Other areas of concern were the availability and accessibility of critical QA/QC information across the workgroups. Operators often lacked complete or accurate information to carry out their daily tasks.

Technical solutions

After an initial on-site demonstration of Orica Digital Solutions’ BlastIQ™ Underground solution, the DPM Chelopech team and Orica worked together to assess the benefits of digitalising QA/QC processes and integrating the system with Chelopechs’ SMART Centre reporting systems.

Based on the outcomes of those discussions, Orica proposed implementing BlastIQ™ to provide a seamless, integrated platform for digitally capturing essential QA/QC data for drilling, preparation, and loading.

The BlastIQ™ Underground solution comprised three core components:

• The BlastIQ™ Underground desktop application, used to import and export drill and blast designs from the mine's primary design software and ingest data from the BlastIQ™ Mobile devices in the field.
• BlastIQ™ Mobile provides a simple user interface on a Windows mobile device for the underground operators to view the design and input measured data and comments against blast holes.
• BlastIQ™ web portal, a browser-accessible interface for data management, progress dashboards and applying Tags and Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) for downstream reporting, also accessible through the BlastIQ™ APIs.

BlastIQ™ enabled the Chelopech team to eliminate their paper-based QA/QC recording process and improve the efficiency and transparency in capturing critical drilling, preparation, and loading information.

The implementation was delivered through Orica Digital Solutions’ Customer Success Program (CSP), a collaborative project management solution that ensures a seamless technology rollout and delivers value through proactive support, continuous optimisation, and partnership-driven performance improvements.

A critical part of the CSP process was the structured training provided to all DPM operational and SMART Centre personnel, who received comprehensive training over a number of short sessions tailored to their roles in the use of BlastIQ™.

The result

Over 11 days, the on-site component of the CSP was delivered. The first users were trained, and the system was live with operators recording data in less than 24 hours. BlastIQ™ leveraged the site's existing extensive network infrastructure to wirelessly send and receive designs and recorded QA/QC data.

To record all drilling, hole preparation, and loading activities, BlastIQ™ Mobile devices were deployed across the entire fleet of underground production drills and to the production shotfirers.

A reduction in the reliance on paper was achieved by using the BlastIQ™ document storage functionality. This allows operators to access critical design documentation in the field and eliminates the need for printed paper copies. This documentation is version-controlled, and updated designs can be wirelessly pushed to the tablets in seconds over the mine network.

The mine-wide Wi-Fi coverage enabled the BlastIQ™ Mobile devices to remain connected and continuously push operator recordings to the BlastIQ™ servers. This resulted in the DPM team having access to live, hole-by-hole data on drilling, hole preparation, and loading activities. Due to the connected nature of the BlastIQ™ solution, underground operators always had full access not only to their task but to all active drill and blast plans in the system, giving the team greater operational flexibility and awareness.

Using the BlastIQ™ Underground desktop application and web portal enabled the engineering team to track design progress and quickly isolate areas of concern for field rectification.

Finally, the DPM SMART Centre team were able to connect BlastIQ™ API endpoints for integration into their own planning and reporting systems. This will enable the team to begin removing existing digital capturing tools from their production drills and rely solely on the BlastIQ™ Mobile devices.

Acknowledgements

Orica are grateful for the collaboration with DPM Metals, giving us the opportunity to jointly find improvements for their operation through our technologies, while complying with safety standards, maintaining positive interaction with communities and preserving the environment.

Author: Craig Buchanan, Underground Technology Lead &
Stefan Popov, Mine Drilling and Blasting Engineer
Date: 24 April 2026