The Stratified Ironstone, Shale and Fireclay Mines (Explosives) Regulations 1956

PART X General

Exemptions

55.  The Chief Inspector of Mines if he is satisfied that the application of any provision of these regulations is inappropriate in relation to any mine or part thereof may by notice served on the manager of that mine exempt it or a part thereof from the application of that provision.

Interpretation

56.—(1) In these regulations the following expressions have the meanings hereby respectively assigned to them, that is to say—

“the Act” means the Mines and Quarries Act, 1954;

“cross measure drift” includes any drift driven otherwise than in stratified ironstone, shale, fireclay or (in relation only to regulation three) coal or otherwise than for the purpose of getting stratified ironstone, shale, fireclay or (in relation only to regulation three) coal therefrom;

“deputy” and “deputy's district” have the meanings assigned thereto in the Coal and Other Mines (Managers and Officials) Regulations, 1956;

“detonator” includes safety fuse capped with a detonator;

“explosive” does not include a detonator;

“explosives store” has the meaning assigned thereto in paragraph (1) of regulation four;

“firedamp content” means the percentage of inflammable gas present in the general body of the air;

“mine” has the meaning assigned thereto in regulation one;

“person appointed to fire shots by fuse” has the meaning assigned thereto in paragraph (1) of regulation two;

“round”, in relation to shots, means a number of shots fired—

(a)

electrically in series, either simultaneously or by means of delay detonators; or

(b)

by fuse, by means of apparatus approved for firing a number of shots by fuse simultaneously; or

(c)

where the number does not exceed four, by fuses lighted at the same time;

“safety fuse” means fuse consisting of gun powder protected either by not less than three coverings of thread or by not less than two coverings of thread and one of tape or gutta-percha, being of such a quality that the rate of burning does not vary more than ten seconds above or below the rate of thirty seconds for each foot of fuse;

“scheme of transit” has the meaning assigned thereto in paragraph (1) of regulation eleven;

“sheathed explosive” means explosive covered by an external sheath of incombustible material spread evenly over the sides of the cartridge, and includes explosive in any type of cartridge certified by the Minister to be equivalent in safety to sheathed explosive;

“shot firer” has the meaning assigned thereto in paragraph (1) of regulation two.

(2) In these regulations any reference to the use of explosive includes the charging of a shot hole therewith.

(3) Expressions to which meanings are assigned by the Act or by these regulations shall (unless the contrary intention appears) have the same meanings in any document issued under the provisions of these regulations.

(4) The Interpretation Act, 1889, shall apply to the interpretation of these regulations as it applies to the interpretation of an Act of Parliament.

Commencement and citation

57.  These regulations shall come into operation at the commencement of the Act and may be cited as the Stratified Ironstone, Shale and Fireclay Mines (Explosives) Regulations, 1956.