Quarries (Explosives) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006

Interpretation

2.  In these Regulations—

“appoint” in relation to a person means appoint in writing with a written statement summarising his duties and authority;

“competent” in relation to a person means a person with sufficient training, experience, knowledge and other qualities to enable him properly to undertake the duties assigned to him;

“detonator” means an initiator for explosives that contains a charge of high explosive fired by means of a flame, spark, electric current or shock tube;

“excavation” means any place at the quarry where minerals are or have been extracted and includes the ground, faces or sides of the quarry and any other incline;

“exploder” means a device designed for firing detonators;

“explosive” means an explosive article or explosive substance;

“explosive article” means an article containing one or more explosive substances;

“explosive substance” means—

(a)

a solid or liquid substance, or

(b)

a mixture of solid or liquid substances or both,

which is capable by chemical reaction in itself of producing gas at such a temperature and pressure and at such a speed as could cause damage to surroundings or which is designed to produce an effect by heat, light, sound, gas or smoke or a combination of these as a result of non-detonative self-sustaining exothermic chemical reactions;

“explosives” means explosive articles or explosive substances;

“explosives store” means—

(a)

premises registered in accordance with section 21 of the Explosives Act 1875(1) (“the 1875 Act”);

(b)

a store licensed in accordance with section 15 of the 1875 Act; or

(c)

a magazine licensed in accordance with sections 6 to 8 of the 1875 Act;

“misfire” means an occurrence in relation to the firing of shots where—

(a)

testing before firing reveals broken continuity which cannot be rectified; or

(b)

a shot or any part of a shot fails to explode when an attempt is made to fire it;

“operator” in relation to a quarry means the person in overall control of the working of the quarry;

“quarry” has the meaning assigned to it by the Quarries Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006(2);

“safety fuse” means a flexible cord that contains an internal burning medium by which fire is conveyed at a continuous and uniform rate for the purpose of firing plain detonators or black powder, without initiating burning in a similar fuse that may be in lateral contact;

“shot” means a single shot or a series of shots fired as part of one blast;

“shotfirer” means a person appointed pursuant to regulation 4(2)(a)(ii) to be responsible for shotfiring operations;

“shotfiring operations” include—

(a)

checking to ensure that the blasting specification is still appropriate for the site conditions at the time the blasting is to take place;

(b)

mixing explosives;

(c)

priming a cartridge;

(d)

charging and stemming a shothole;

(e)

linking or connecting a round of shots;

(f)

withdrawal and sheltering of persons;

(g)

inspecting and testing a shotfiring circuit;

(h)

firing a shot; and

(i)

checking for misfires;

“trainee shotfirer” means a person appointed pursuant to regulation 4(2)(a)(ii) to undergo training in shotfiring operations under the close personal supervision of a shotfirer; and

“vehicle” means any mechanically propelled vehicle (including mechanically propelled plant).

(1)

1875 c. 17

(2)

S.R. 2006 No. 205