from the very little I know of narrow vein mining I would say you are correct gf. There was a discussion on the MCO thread a year or so back that mentioned a way to break out the ore from the country rock without blasting, and I read once the Romans use to use heat to crack the rock in mining. THere was also a company (brandrill) that around 12 years ago was experimenting with placing compressed air capsules in the blast holes instead of ANFO, they went into liquidation from memory though, then I think they got bought out by Leightons.
MCO Price at posting:
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