2023 Code of Alabama › Title 25 - Industrial Relations and Labor. › Chapter 9 - Coal Mine Safety. › Article 13 - Surface Mining Operations. › Section 25-9-278 - Blasting Practices and Procedures Generally.

Section 25-9-278
Blasting practices and procedures generally.
(a) All blasting shall be done in a safe manner after all persons have been removed to a safe place.
(b) All blasting should be done electrically or with detonating fuse.
(c) Primers shall be made up near the working place by competent persons experienced in handling explosives. Competent persons shall also load, assist in loading, or supervise the loading or charging of drill holes.
(d) Primers shall be prepared in accordance with safety standards of the Institute of Makers of Explosives or of the manufacturer of the explosives as approved by the chief. Holes made in the primer cartridge for the purpose of inserting the detonator shall be made with a wooden or other nonsparking implement.
(e) In tamping holes, only a wooden tamping bar or other nonsparking tamping bar shall be used. Before charging drill holes, except well holes, they shall be thoroughly cleaned. Explosives shall not be violently tamped in the drill hole but may be firmly charged; except, that undue pressure shall not be used against the primer cartridge when placing it in a drill hole. The primer cartridge shall not be slit.
(f) When a drill hole has been charged with explosives, it shall be filled to the collar with stemming material, as nearly free from rock as practical. The stemming material should be well tamped.
(g) No loading operations shall be carried on in working places where rock falling from the face or rolling rock is likely to endanger the loading operations. Working places shall be made safe for loading operations before loading is begun.
(h) Fuse igniters of the "hot wire" type or punk or their equivalent shall be used for igniting safety fuse.
(i) The number of detonations shall be counted as far as possible. Misfires shall be reported to the authorized person responsible for blasting, and no person shall return to the vicinity of the suspected misfire until 30 minutes have elapsed in the case of fuse blasting and until 15 minutes have elapsed in the case of electrical blasting. No regular pit operations shall be conducted in the area where an unexpected detonation of a misfired hole shall endanger employees. Misfires, except in the case of vertical holes, shall be reblasted by inserting a new primer in the drill hole. In such case, stemming or tamping material may be washed from the drill hole with water before inserting the new primer.
(j) In case of misfire in a vertical hole, if it is not possible or safe to insert a new primer, a new hole may be drilled under the personal supervision of the person responsible for blasting, and such hole shall be started not less than two feet from the original drill hole and shall be drilled at such an angle as to eliminate all danger of meeting or coming closer than two feet of the original drill hole. In the case of sprung holes, the new drill hole shall be placed and carried at such an angle that there will be no possibility of its meeting any part of the misfire charge; provided, that in case of a misfired vertical drilled hole, it shall not be disturbed, nor any attempt made to fire it, without permission of the superintendent or person responsible for blasting.
(k) "Bootlegs" or "guns," if the bottom of the hole cannot be seen, shall be washed out with water or cleaned with a wooden stick whether or not explosives remain in them. If explosives are found in such "bootleg" or "gun," the hole shall be treated as a misfired shot. All persons working in an area where explosives are found in the muck pile shall be alerted, and caution shall be exercised in recovering such explosives. Such recovered explosive shall be removed and later destroyed following procedure recommended by the explosive manufacturers. Any leftover explosive, capped fuse, or detonators remaining after loading the drill holes shall be returned to the storage magazine after loading operations have been completed.
(l) Oversize rock material set aside for blasting shall be examined to determine whether or not any unexploded powder remained in such rock or boulder. The person responsible for blasting shall determine whether or not rocks or boulders set aside for blasting are safe to drill.
(m) Boulders which must be broken by blasting shall be block holed. "Adobe," "plaster," or "mud-capped" shots shall be prohibited, except, that such shots may be permitted where no means of drilling such boulders is available; provided, that they shall then be fired under supervision of the person responsible for blasting.
(n) Where drill holes are sprung, the temperature of the chamber shall be determined before placing the final charge, and no hole shall be loaded with the final charge until the chamber has been cooled to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. No drill holes shall be sprung when adjacent to a loaded sprung hole.
(o) Cartridges shall not be forced into drill holes. Cartridges shall be placed in drill holes in the original wrapper.
(p) Where detonators are used, nothing less than No. 6 detonators or electric detonators shall be used to explode charges. Electric detonators from different manufacturers shall not be used in the same shot.
(q) One person shall not be allowed to light more than 10 fuses at one time.
(Acts 1949, No. 207, p. 242, §80; Acts 1975, 4th Ex. Sess., No. 147, p. 2866, §1.)