AKSUM UNIVERSITY SHIRE CAMPUS

SCHOOL OF MINES
DEPARTMENT OF MINING ENGINEERING
MINE DESIGN ONE

C O M P L I E D B Y: - K I B R O M A .
 Terminology
 AIR BLAST - An airborne shock wave resulting from the detonation of
explosives. May be caused by burden movement or the release of
expanding gas into the air. Air blast may or may not be audible.
 AIR GAP - A blasting technique wherein a charge is suspended in a
borehole, and the hole tightly stemmed to allow a time-lapse between
detonation and ultimate failure of the rock (no coupling realized).
 AMERICAN TABLE OF DISTANCE - A quantity-distance table
published by IME as Pamphlet No. 2, which specifies safe explosives
storage distances from inhabited buildings, public highways,
passenger rail- ways, and other stored explosives materials.
 AMMONIUM NITRATE (AN) - The most commonly used oxidizer in
explosives and blasting agents.
 ANFO - A blasting agent consisting of ammonium nitrate prills and
fuel oil.
 BACK BREAK AND BACKSHATTER - Rock broken at the hole collar beyond the limits of the last row

 BLAST - The operation of rending (breaking) rock by means of explosives.

Shot is also used to mean a blast.
 BLAST AREA - The area near a blast within the influence of flying
missiles, or damage-level concussion.
 BLASTER-IN-CHARGE - A qualified person in charge of a blasting
operation. Also, a person who has passed a test, approved by NPS-65,
which certifies his or her qualifications to conduct and supervise blasting
activities.
 BLASTING AGENT - Any material or mixture, consisting of fuel and
oxidizer, intended for blasting, not otherwise defined as an explosive,
provided that the finished product, as mixed for shipment or use, cannot be
detonated by means of a No. 8 test blasting cap when unconfined.
 BLASTHOLE - A hole drilled into rock or other material for the placement
of explosives.
 BLASTING MAT - Used to cover a blast to hold down any
possible fly material (debris); usually made of woven wire rope or
cable, rope, or rubber.
 BLASTING GALVANOMETER - A measuring instrument
containing a silver chloride cell and a current- limiting device
which is used to measure resistance in an electrical blasting
circuit. Only a device specifically identified as a blasting
galvanometer, blasting ohmmeter, or blasting multi meter shall be
used for this purpose.
 BLOCKHOLE - A hole drilled into a boulder to allow the
placement of a small charge of explosives to break the boulder.
 BOOSTER - A chemical compound used for intensifying an
explosives reaction. A booster does not contain an initiating
device, but must be cap sensitive. Usually of high velocity and
 BOOTLEG - That portion of a borehole that remains relatively intact
after having been charged with explosives and fired. A situation in
which the blast fails to cause total failure of the rock due to insufficient
explosives for the amount of burden (also called shot gunning), or
caused by incomplete detonation of the explosives.
 BOULDERING - Referred to also as . ADOBE. OR .PLASTER
SHOT. - A charge of explosives fired in contact with the surface of a
rock. May be covered with a quantity of mud, wet earth, or similar
substance (no borehole used).
 BRIDGEWIRE - A very fine filament wire embedded in the ignition
element of an electrical blasting cap.
 BRIDGING - Where the continuity of a column of
explosives in a borehole is broken, either by improper
placement, as in the case of slurries or poured blasting
agents, or where some foreign matter has plugged the
 CONDENSER DISCHARGE (CD) BLASTING MACHINE - Blasting
machine that uses batteries or generator to energize a series of
condensers which release stored energy into a blasting circuit.
 CONNECTING WIRE - Any wire in a blasting circuit connecting cap
leg wires with lead wire. Usually considered expendable.
 CONFINED DETONATION VELOCITY - The detonation velocity of an
explosive or blasting agent under confinement, such as in a borehole.
 COYOTE BLASTING - Blasting of rock by detonating explosives-filled
tunnels. The tunnels are usually at the base and parallel to the rock face.
Includes the practice of drilling blasting holes (tunnels) horizontally into
rock face at the foot of the shot. Used where it is impractical to drill
vertically.
 COUPLING - Degree to which an explosive fills the borehole. Bulk
loaded explosives are completely coupled. Untamed cartridges are
uncoupled. (Also intimate contact between explosives and rock.)
 CRITICAL DIAMETER - The minimum diameter for propagation of a
detonation wave at a stable velocity. Critical diameter is affected by
conditions of confinement, temperature, and pressure on the explosive.
 CUTOFF - Occurs when a column of explosives fails to detonate due to
bridging, or to a shift of the rock 207 formation caused by an improper
delay system. Also applies to disruption of detonating cord initiation
systems due to improper layout or knots, or in some cases, to fly rock
cutting the cord.
 CUSHION BLASTING - A technique of firing a single row of
decoupled holes along a neat excavation line to shear the rock between
closely drilled holes. Fired after production blasting has been
accomplished.
 DEAD PRESSING - Desensitization of an explosive, caused by
pressurization. Tiny air bubbles, required for sensitivity, are literally
squeezed from the mixture.
 DECIBEL - The unit of sound pressure commonly used to indicate air
blast noise from explosives. The decibel scale is logarithmic.
 DECK - In blasting, a smaller charge or portion of a blasthole loaded
with explosives that is separated from the main charge by stemming or
air cushion.
 DECOUPLING - The use of cartridge products significantly smaller in
diameter than the borehole. Decoupled charges are normally not used
except in cushion blasting, smooth blasting, pre-splitting, and other
situations where crushing is undesirable.
 DEFLAGRATION - A burning process that proceeds at a rate less than
3000 fps, but produces sufficient gas pressure to rend or disrupt the
material around it, including rock.
 DELAY BLASTING - The use of delay detonators or connectors that
cause separate charges to detonate at different times, rather than
simultaneously.
 DELAY CONNECTOR - A nonelectric, short interval delay device for
use in delaying blasts that are initiated by detonating cord.
 DELAY ELEMENT - That portion of a blasting cap which causes a
delay between the instant of impressments of energy on the cap and the
time of detonation of the base charge of the cap.
 DENSITY - The weight of material per unit volume, usually expressed
in grams per cubic centimeter; with water = 1.0.
 DETONATING CORD - A flexible cord containing a center core of high
explosives and used to initiate other explosives.
 DETONATION - An explosives reaction that consists of the propagation
of a shock wave through the explosive, accompanied by a chemical
reaction that furnishes energy to sustain the shock wave propagation in a
stable, sustained manner, with gaseous formation and pressure
expansion following shortly thereafter.
 DETONATION PRESSURE - The head-on pressure created by the
detonation proceeding down the explo-sive column. Detonation
pressure is a function of the density of the explosive and the square of
its velocity.
 DETONATOR - Any device containing a detonating charge that is used
to initiate an explosive. Includes, but is not limited to, blasting caps,
electric blasting caps, and nonelectric instantaneous or delay blasting
caps.
 DOWNLINE - The line of detonating cord in the borehole which
transmits energy from the trunk line down the hole to the primer.
 DYNAMITE - A high explosives used for blasting, consisting
essentially of a mixture of, but not limited to, nitroglycerin,
nitrocellulose, ammonium nitrate, and carbonaceous materials.
 ECHELON PATTERN - A delay pattern that causes the true burden, at the
time of detonation, to be at an oblique angle from the original free face.
 EMULSION - An explosives material containing substantial amounts of
oxidizers suspended in water droplets surrounded by an immiscible fuel.
Similar to a slurry in some respects.
 EXPLOSION - A thermo chemical process whereby mixtures of gases,
solids, or liquids react with the almost instantaneous formation of high
gaseous pressures and a heat release. There must always be a source of
ignition and a proper temperature limit reached to initiate the reaction.
Technically, a boiler can rupture, but cannot explode.
 EXPLOSIVE - Any chemical compound, mixture, or device, the primary
or common purpose of which is to function by explosion or to initiate
explosives; the term includes dynamite and other high explosives, black
 powder, pellet powder, initiating explosives, detonators, safety fuses,
squibs, detonating cord, igniter cord, and igniters.
 FLYROCK - Rock that is propelled through the air from a blast.
Excessive fly rock may be caused by poor blast design or unexpected
zones of weakness in the rock.
 FRACTURE - Literally, the breaking of rock without movement of
broken pieces.
 FRAGMENTATION - The extent to which rock is broken into small
pieces by primary blasting.
 FUEL - In explosive calculations, it is the chemical compound used for
purposes of combining with oxygen to form gaseous products and
cause heat.
 GAP SENSITIVITY - A measure of the distance across which an
explosive can propagate a detonation. The gap may be air or a defined
material. Gap sensitivity is a measure of the likelihood of sympathetic
linear propagation.
 HANGFIRES - The detonation of an explosive charge at a time after its
designed firing time. A source of serious accidents.
 HARDPAN - A tight clay soil, often including sand, gravels, or even
boulder content, which, when dry, is so cemented that it must be blasted
or ripped in order to excavate.
 HIGHWALL - The bench, bluff, or ledge on the edge of a surface
excavation, and most often used only in strip mining.
 HYGROSCOPIC- A tendency for an explosive product to absorb
water/moisture, ie ammonium nitrate
 IGNITACORD - A cord-like thermite fuse that burns progressively
along its length with an external flame at the zone of burning and is used
for lighting a series of safety fuses in sequence. Burns with a spitting
flame similar to a Fourth of July sparkler.
 INITIATION - The act of detonating a high explosives by way of a
mechanical device or other means.
 JOINTS - Planes within rock masses along which there is reduced
resistance to separation and along which there has been no relative
movement of the material on each side of the break. Joints, unlike
strata, are unrelated to the order of geological deposition.
 JUMBO/GANG DRILL - A machine with one or more mounted drilling
units which may or may not be operated independently.
 LEAD WIRE - The wires connecting the electrodes of an electric
blasting machine with the final leg wires of a blasting circuit.
 LOADING DENSITY - An expression of explosives density in terms of
pounds of explosives per foot of a specific diameter.
 MISFIRE - A charge, or part of a charge, which for any reason has failed to fire
as planned. All misfires are to be considered extremely dangerous until the
cause of the misfire has been determined.
 OXIDIZER - An ingredient in an explosives or blasting agent
which supplies oxygen to combine with the fuel to form gaseous
or solid products of detonation. Ammonium nitrate is the most
common oxidizer used in commercial explosives.
 PARTICLE VELOCITY - A measure of ground vibration.
Describes the velocity at which a particle of ground vibrates when
excited by a seismic wave.
 PENTAERYTHRITOLTETRANITRATE (PETN) - An explosive
used as the core load of detonating cord and the base charge of
blasting caps.
 POWDER - A common synonym for explosive material.
 POWDER FACTOR - The tons or cubic yards of rock affected per
pound of explosives used.
 PREMATURE DETONATION - Charge detonates before it is
intended to.
 PRE-BLAST SURVEY - The inspection and documentation of the
existing condition of rock/ground formation or other medium, or
structure, prior to blasting.
 PRIMER - A unit, package, or cartridge of explosives used to initiate
other explosives or blasting agents, and which contains: (1)
detonator; (2) detonating cord to which is attached a detonator
designed to initiate the detonating cord.
 PROPAGATION - The detonation of explosives by an impulse from a
nearby explosives charge in either columnar or linear spaced
configuration.
 SAFETY FUSE - A cord containing a core of black powder and
having a controlled burn rate, used to initiate blasting caps.
 SECONDARY BLAST - Using explosives to break up larger rock
masses resulting from the primary blasts. These are the rocks that are
too large for easy handling.
 VELOCITY - The measure of the rate at which the detonation wave
travels through explosives.
 WATER GEL - An aqueous solution of ammonium and sodium nitrate
with a fuel sensitized by explosive additives and/or microballoon
entrapped air, thickened, and cross-linked to provide a gelatinous
consistency. Also called a slurry. May be an explosives or a blasting
agent.
 WEIGHT STRENGTH - A rating that compares the strength of a given
explosives with an equivalent weight of an explosives standard,
expressed as a percentage. The explosive standard for dynamites is
straight nitroglycerin dynamite. The standard for all other explosives is
ANFO, which is given a base value of 100 (for example, 100 percent).