Events & Courses

This is an on-line CPD course developed by the Geology Department of the University of Leicester, together with other partners. It was developed with funding from the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s Chile Prosperity Fund. The course is in English and designed to be studied as part-time distance learning.

This course focuses on the subject of rock blasting which is often required in mines and hard rock quarries to fragment the rock for removal or further processing. It is designed for managers and others who need to understand the drilling and blasting process in order to ensure it is carried out in a controlled and efficient manner, with minimum environmental impacts. It is NOT a shotfirer's course, and the course on its own does not make you competent to design or carry out blasts.

The course starts with a brief overview of the associated topic of drilling, which is a critical part of the whole blasting process. The various aspects of successful blast design are then considered in relation to quarry blasting to produce a muck-pile, but most of the factors also apply to open-pit and opencast blasting. The course finishes by considering the environmental impacts of blasting, and how they can be avoided or controlled, as many mines are in close proximity to communities who may be concerned about the effects of blasting on their properties.