A mobile manufacturing and delivery platform that is adapted to provide in a blasthole an explosive composition comprising a liquid energetic material and sensitizing voids, the sensitizing voids being present in the liquid energetic material with a non-random distribution. The platform comprises a storage tank for the liquid energetic material; at least two delivery lines for conveying respective streams of the liquid energetic material from the storage tank; a void delivery system for producing sensitizing voids in at least one of the streams of liquid energetic material; a mixer for mixing the streams of liquid energetic material to produce the explosive composition; and a blasthole loading hose. The mixer may be provided at the end of the loading hose. A blasting method employs the platform to manufacture and deliver the explosive composition into a blasthole, which composition is subsequently detonated.

The present invention is directed to an explosive composition comprised of heavy ANFO and expanded polymeric beads that have a density that is less than the density of the heavy ANFO. The expanded polymeric beads have a size that is determined or based on the size of ammonium nitrate prills used in the heavy ANFO portion of the composition. In one embodiment, the expanded polymeric beads that are utilized in the composition are at least 70% of the lower limit of the mesh size of the predominant ammonium nitrate prill mesh size. In another embodiment, the expanded polymeric beads are at least 70% of a size that is related to the average mesh size of the ammonium nitrate prills.