Mining, Quarrying & Civils

The Cardox System is classified non-explosive. That single classification removes the licensing, the magazine, the notification and the transport permits — and it is why the system works on sites where conventional blasting is restricted or simply unavailable.

Winning and breaking

• Dimensional stone — two tubes split and heave a block of over 50 tonnes along its natural bed plane. Yields of 5–20 m³ per tube.
• General quarrying — 3–6 m³ per tube in typical strata
• Coal and ore winning — a controlled forward heave rather than a shatter, producing large clean lump instead of fines
• Boulder breaking and secondary reduction
• Underground work, including gaseous mines

Full yield figures by strata: CO₂ rock breaking.

Civils and infrastructure

Infrastructure work stalls the moment it hits hard rock and finds blasting is not permitted — too close to a structure, too close to a road, vibration limits in force, or the licence will not arrive in time. The same tubes solve it.

• Rock excavation next to live roads, buildings and services
• Tunnelling — hard and medium rock, including metro and highway works
• Trenching for services and pipelines in built-up areas
• Shaft sinking beneath live gas, electricity and water mains
• Foundation excavation without shaking the neighbouring structure
• Concrete demolition — mass, lightly and heavily reinforced
• Underwater excavation — harbour deepening, seabed cable and pipeline routes, riverbed work

Why it clears approval where blasting does not — no vibration, no shock wave, no fly rock, no exclusion-zone shutdown — is set out in full on the CO₂ rock breaking page, alongside how it compares with hydraulic splitters, expansive agents and breakers.

Storage and handling

The same equipment clears the vessels downstream — ore hoppers and bunkers, concentrate and coarse ore bins, reclaim hoppers and transfer points. See materials and vessels.