On June 8, 2024, following the detonation order issued by the blasting commander, the rugged summit of Tanganshan was completely removed in an instant. The operation marked the successful overcoming of the most difficult construction challenge of GN Energetic Blasting’s Tanganshan project in Fengkai, Guangdong, laying a solid foundation for the full completion of the project.
The project features an extremely steep and isolated peak with a height of 156 meters and a slope gradient of 80 degrees. The mountain is inaccessible for conventional vehicles and road construction, with well-developed karst caves, numerous faults and intricate fissures, as well as severely weathered original landforms. The construction working face is extremely narrow, with the narrowest section merely 6 to 7 meters wide and nearly vertical side slopes. In addition, factories, residential buildings and environmental protection equipment and pipelines are located at the foot of the mountain, with the nearest protected facility only 105 meters away. Such harsh and complex construction conditions posed severe tests for both professional blasting technologies and on-site safety management.
Faced with tremendous construction difficulties, the project team adopted proactive and innovative solutions to break through bottlenecks. To solve the problem of inaccessible mountain terrain, a steel pipe access road with protective guardrails on both sides was built. Drilling equipment was disassembled at the mountain foot, transported uphill in parts and reassembled on-site to tackle equipment transportation difficulties. Explosives were delivered uphill by relay of professional blasting operators, while detonators were transported separately by dedicated managers using special detonator storage boxes to ensure safe delivery of explosive materials. For the jagged, rain-eroded summit terrain that hindered drilling platform layout, workers leveled construction areas with small air picks before conducting formal drilling operations. Digital inclinometers were applied to precisely control the angle of outermost inclined holes, making up for the difficulty in observing the burden of front-row hole positions. With ingenuity and perseverance, the project team turned seemingly impossible construction challenges into achievable results.
Photo: Blasting operators transfer explosives along the steel‑pipe access road
The company’s technical team conducted multiple on-site surveys and held repeated discussions with the project department and quality and safety department to formulate a scientific construction plan featuring dense hole layout and minimal charge weight, with strict control over the burden of front-row blasting holes. Technical personnel were required to closely monitor adverse geological conditions including fissures and karst caves throughout the construction process. Adhering to the corporate work style of refined construction and safe operation, the team refined safety risk assessment items and adopted targeted phased measures to keep all potential risks within controllable safety ranges. In view of the severely weathered steep limestone mountain, a detailed plan for dangerous rock inspection and disposal was formulated, with unmanned aerial vehicles deployed to inspect inaccessible areas. All staff working in hazardous zones were mandated to wear safety belts and uphold three working principles: a strong sense of responsibility for standardized construction, sufficient patience to tackle technical difficulties, and a modest attitude to learn and communicate actively.
Photo: Drilling operation in progress
The successful top-off blasting of the precipitous mountain fully demonstrates GN Energetic Blasting’s solid management capability, outstanding technical strength and pioneering innovative spirit. It establishes a solid safety foundation for subsequent construction work and sets a benchmark for safe and standardized mountain treatment projects with complex geological conditions and high safety risks in the industry.
