Regulation 2 InterpretationI1

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—

  1. (a)

     a solid or liquid substance, or

  2. (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;

• F1“explosives store” means a building, enclosed area or metal structure where explosives are stored under a licence granted or registration issued under the Manufacture and Storage of Explosives Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006;

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

  1. (a)

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

  2. (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^f1;

• “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—

  1. (a)

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

  2. (b)

     mixing explosives;

  3. (c)

     priming a cartridge;

  4. (d)

     charging and stemming a shothole;

  5. (e)

     linking or connecting a round of shots;

  6. (f)

     withdrawal and sheltering of persons;

  7. (g)

     inspecting and testing a shotfiring circuit;

  8. (h)

     firing a shot; and

  9. (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).