A global leader in commercial explosives, Dyno Nobel is proud of the role it plays in making mining safer, smarter, and more productive. We discuss the company’s market leadership in electronic detonators and significant presence in underground mining with Braden Lusk, Chief Technology Officer, and Greg Tranor, Vice President of Strategic Marketing and Commercial Growth.
EXPLOSIVE EXCELLENCE
In recent years, the commercial explosives industry in Asia Pacific (APAC) has been focused on ensuring the continuity of ammonium nitrate supply.
However, whilst product security remains important, customer expectations have evolved.
As such, mining operators today are looking for partners who can help them reduce total cost of ownership, improve processing efficiency, and support their sustainability and decarbonisation goals.
Other trends, such as greater momentum around digital adoption, automation, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-aligned innovation, are also reshaping how value is created and measured in the industry.
For Dyno Nobel, a global leader in commercial explosives, this represents an opportunity to lead.
“Our focus is on unlocking value at the intersection of blasting, processing, and sustainability,” opens Braden Lusk, Chief Technology Officer.
“This is where we believe the next wave of performance gains will be realised,” adds Greg Tranor, Vice President of Strategic Marketing and Commercial Growth.
Dyno Nobel is known for its track record of safe execution, technical innovation, and close customer partnerships.
In APAC, the company has a strong footprint across Australia, Indonesia, and other key markets. Its regional workforce includes more than 1,200 employees who support surface and underground operations across coal, iron ore, copper, and gold.
“Our offering spans bulk explosives, initiation systems, digital platforms, and technical consulting,” outlines Lusk.
“What sets us apart is how we bring these elements together into an integrated system. Through blast optimisation platforms like Nobel Fire® and our key performance indicator (KPI) dashboards, we turn insights into actions across the full mining value chain.”
DRILL TO MILL
With its ‘Drill to Mill’ approach, Dyno Nobel helps customers to tailor energy placement, track performance in real time, and continuously improve outcomes.
By connecting design, execution, and measurement, the company enables smarter decisions that optimise upstream operations and deliver measurable value throughout the processing chain.
Dyno Nobel’s ability to connect technology, data, and processes into one cohesive system that consistently delivers measurable value is where the company’s differentiation lies.
“We are not just focused on making high-quality products, but helping customers solve complex challenges, whether that means reducing oversize, increasing mill throughput, or minimising environmental impact,” Tranor emphasises.
In a market of imitators, Dyno Nobel’s DIFFERENTIAL ENERGY technology stands out as the premier solution for advanced blast optimisation. The company sets the industry standard, delivering on unmatched combination of precision, adaptability, and consistent field performance.
DIFFERENTIAL ENERGY remains the industry benchmark because it can be tailored to each blast pattern and geology, enabling precise energy placement, improved fragmentation, and reduced environmental variability.
Dyno Nobel has proven this systems-based approach in the field. At the Kennecott mine in the US, for example, its Drill to Mill strategy helped double mill throughput and delivered more than USD$58 million dollars in value.
At a major copper mine in Chile, meanwhile, the company improved crusher efficiency and leaching recovery through fragmentation strategies aligned with ore characteristics.
It also worked with the customer at an Australian gold mine to implement DIFFERENTIAL ENERGY to improve fragmentation in ex-pit ore.
“By matching energy to ground conditions, the mine increased the tonnes moved per operating hour and improved truck payloads across multiple stages,” Lusk informs us.
“This allowed the operation to move over one million additional tonnes of high-grade ex-pit material, displacing lower grade feed and generating an estimated AUD$29 million in additional revenue.”
Dyno Nobel’s success in these projects reflects the strength of its long-term technology partnerships with major mining customers, which ensure the company’s product innovations, digital platforms, and field support continue to align directly with customer needs and operational priorities.
“These results are not isolated – they demonstrate a repeatable approach that ties advanced technology to measurable, real-world performance,” affirms Tranor.
“Our focus is on unlocking value at the intersection of blasting, processing, and sustainability”
Braden Lusk, Chief Technology Officer, Dyno Nobel
LEADERS IN ELECTRONIC DETONATORS
Dyno Nobel is proud to be the market leader in electronic detonators across Australia.
This leadership is not only the outcome of product innovation, but also consistent performance, strong technical support, and long-standing customer partnerships.
“Our DigiShot® Plus electronic detonator series is used extensively in both surface and underground operations, offering precise control, operational flexibility, and seamless integration with digital planning and analytics tools,” Lusk shares.
“Blasting is not simply about initiating a shot – it’s about controlling energy to achieve the exact results needed and doing so with consistency every time.”
Whilst being the largest seller of electronic detonators in Australia is important to Dyno Nobel, what matters most is being truly advanced.
“We focus on delivering the greatest value from every detonation. By taking an integrated and outcome-driven approach, we help our customers get the most from every blast,” Tranor tells us.
Dyno Nobel recently introduced the DigiShot® XR series, which includes three advanced electronic detonators – DigiShot® XR, DigiShot® Plus XR, and DigiShot® Plus XRS.
These systems were developed to address two key industry priorities, namely enhancing safety and improving operational efficiency.
Built for the most demanding environments, they are engineered to withstand extreme shock and electromagnetic pulse conditions.
The DigiShot® Plus XR offers a comprehensive shock mitigation design, using optimised component placement, stress-relief engineering, and advanced materials.
“Both the DigiShot® Plus XR and DigiShot® Plus XRS models deliver a 30 percent increase in programmable timing delay, providing greater vibration control and more consistent fragmentation,” acclaims Lusk.
“When paired with TROJAN® SHIELD® boosters, they also offer an added layer of protection against dynamic shock failure.”
What sets the DigiShot® XR series apart is not only its technical performance, but its ability to integrate seamlessly into a broader system.
When combined with platforms such as Nobel Fire, these detonators enable precision across design, execution, and measurement.
“This level of integration supports advanced strategies such as Drill to Mill and DIFFERENTIAL ENERGY, helping customers unlock better outcomes across the entire value chain,” Tranor highlights.
Greg Tranor, Vice President of Strategic Marketing and Commercial Growth, Dyno Nobel
“We focus on delivering the greatest value from every detonation. By taking an integrated and outcome-driven approach, we help our customers get the most from every blast”
UNDERGROUND PRESENCE
As well as being a market leader in electronic detonators, Dyno Nobel has a significant presence in underground mining.
Though it presents a unique set of challenges, including confined spaces, ventilation constraints, and strict vibration and safety requirements, this is where the company’s technologies deliver significant value.
“We have supported underground operations across Australia and the Americas by reducing fumes, controlling vibrations, and minimising overbreak through customised blast designs that incorporate DigiShot® Plus XR and BlastWeb™ II centralised blasting,” Lusk shares.
“We also offer emulsion products specifically developed for underground environments that reduce blast fumes and stick in upholes, improving both safety and performance in challenging conditions.”
In Australia, Dyno Nobel has worked with underground gold and base metal mines across the country.
Sites have seen strong results using DigiShot® Plus, BlastWeb™ II, and TITAN® emulsions to improve control, reduce re-entry delays, and maintain production schedules. The outcomes include safer operations, higher ore recovery, and better use of infrastructure.
Looking ahead, the company expects underground mining to continue growing across the globe.
“We are actively investing in new technologies to meet this demand, with a focus on digital integration, automation, and explosive formulations tailored to underground constraints,” Tranor reveals.
“It’s not just about meeting compliance standards – it’s about helping customers operate more efficiently and safely whilst extending and enhancing the value of their assets. That kind of impact builds trust and is why we continue to be a preferred partner in the underground space.”
STRATEGIC FOCUS
For the remainder of 2025 and beyond, meanwhile, Dyno Nobel’s strategic focus is on scaling the value it delivers through fully integrated systems.
This includes accelerating the adoption of Drill to Mill, expanding the capabilities and deployment of the Nobel Fire® platform, and increasing the rollout of its electric mobile processing unit (MPU) fleet.
“These efforts are aligned with the needs of customers who are driving towards decarbonisation and more sustainable operations,” Lusk sets out.
Dyno Nobel is also advancing its investment in real-time data capture, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI).
By applying machine learning (ML) to blast performance data, the company is developing predictive models that help optimise fragmentation, reduce variability, and improve downstream processing.
“These models are integrated into value dashboards that support faster, more informed decision-making across our teams and our customers’ operations,” Tranor expands.
As connectivity across the blasting workflow becomes more streamlined and transparent, Dyno Nobel is working towards a future where entire blasts can be designed, loaded, and executed without the need for personnel on the bench.
This concept of an autonomous bench is shaping the way it develops and integrates technologies.
“The systems we are advancing today will enable safer, more efficient, and fully connected blasting operations from design through execution.
“Everything we are doing is focused on helping our customers operate more efficiently, safely, and sustainably. We are shifting the industry from reactive to predictive and ensuring Dyno Nobel remains a trusted innovation partner as mining continues to evolve,” Lusk concludes.
Dyno Nobel is proud of the role it plays in making mining safer, smarter, and more productive.
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