eng Science and Education Publishing American Journal of Mining and Metallurgy 2376-7960 2026-04-08 9 1 7 14 10.12691/ajmm-9-1-2 AJMM2026912 article Lamine BAR lamine.bar@univ-thies.sn 1 D¨¦thi¨¦ SARR 1 Hamed FALL 1 Makhtar SOW 1 Geotechnical Department, L2M, UFR of Engineering Sciences, Iba Der Thiam University, Thies-Senegal This study evaluates the predictive performance of the Kuz-Ram model and its extensions (Shifted Kuz-Ram and Extended Kuz-Ram) for blast-induced fragmentation in a hard rock geological context: the Diack basalt quarry in Senegal. Particle size distributions were obtained through WipFrag® image analysis and compared to model predictions. The results show that the original Kuz-Ram model (1987) reproduces the general trend with an R² of 0.91 but underestimates the midsize range. The introduction of the shifting factor (Shifted Kuz-Ram) significantly improves the fit (R² = 0.96). The Extended Kuz-Ram model by Cunningham (2005), after calibration of the C(A) and C(n) coefficients, offers the best performance with an R² of 0.995 and an RMSE of 2.76%, demonstrating the importance of local adaptation of empirical parameters. This study contributes to optimizing blast design in basaltic environments and highlights the necessity of calibrating models with field data. https://pubs.sciepub.com/ajmm/9/1/2/ajmm-9-1-2.pdf Blast fragmentation Kuz-Ram model Extended Kuz-Ram Diack quarry WipFrag? image analysis