Published August 2024
The principal distinction between explosives and blasting agents is their sensitivity to initiation. Explosives are capsensitive, whereas blasting agents are not and therefore require a primer. Water gels and slurries may be either explosives or blasting agents.
The many industrial and military uses for explosives and blasting agents—ranging from earth moving to seismic wave generation to materials modification to munitions to propulsion—have generated a host of sophisticated and specialized explosives products and delivery packages. However, in terms of overall revenues, markets and products, the business is overwhelmingly dominated by chemical materials based on the intermediate production of nitric acid (principally ammonium nitrate [AN]) that are used by the world’s mining and quarrying industries.
Ammonium nitrate consumption for explosives has grown because of its safety advantage over other products such as dynamite. Ammonium nitrate can be shipped and stored and mixed with fuel oil when needed. Ammonium nitrate fuel oil (ANFO) is made of about 94% ammonium nitrate and 6% fuel oil. ANFO is widely used as an explosive in mining, quarrying, and tunneling construction or wherever dry conditions exist.
The following pie chart shows world consumption of explosives:
The largest consumers of explosives in industrial applications are mainland China, the United States, South Asia and Eurasia. In addition to consumption by the mining industry, a significant volume of explosives is also consumed by the construction industry and in miscellaneous applications.
Metal mining has overtaken coal mining to become the largest consuming sector for industrial explosives, accounting for 38% of total consumption. Demand growth for this application is estimated at 1.7% per year during 2024–29. Metallic minerals are generally low-grade ores found only in geologically favorable areas of the world. Consequently, the consumption of explosives by this mining sector follows their geographical distribution.
Coal mining recently become the second-largest consuming sector for industrial explosives, accounting for around 36% of total consumption. Coal mining output started to decline several years ago as a consequence of the global effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Coal mining and the use of explosives in this segment is expected to continue stagnating in the forecast period.
Production of stone for construction and the production of cement from quarrying operations account for an additional 13% of the world mining market for explosives. Consumption of explosives in quarrying materials is forecast to increase at around 1.1% over the next five years.
For more detailed information, see the table of contents, shown below.
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