The Stratified Ironstone, Shale and Fireclay Mines (Explosives) Regulations 1956 No. 1943

PART II Appointment and qualification of shot firers and persons appointed to fire shots by fuse

2.—(1) No person shall fire a shot in any mine other than a person appointed to be a shot firer by the manager of that mine (any person so appointed being hereinafter referred to as a “shot firer”):

Provided that any person appointed by the manager to fire shots in the mine by means of safety fuse other than safety fuse capped with a detonator (hereinafter referred to as a “person appointed to fire shots by fuse”) may do so by that means.

(2) No shot firer shall fire a shot in any mine by means of a delay detonator or in a round of more than six shots unless he is appointed so to do by the manager, and no shot firer shall be so appointed unless he has during not less than five shifts been employed in connection with the firing of such shots under the close personal supervision of a shot firer authorised to fire such shots who was not then supervising any other person for the purposes of this paragraph. The manager shall include a record of any such appointment in the record of the appointment of that shot firer kept in pursuance of section one hundred and thirty-four of the Act.

Qualification of shot firers

3.  No person shall be qualified to be appointed or to be a shot firer unless—

(a) he has attained the age of twenty-one years; and

(b) he has had not less than three years practical experience below ground in one or more mines in which coal, stratified ironstone, shale or fireclay was in the course of being worked, including employment for not less than eighteen months in one or more of the following, namely—

(i) getting or cutting any of those minerals;

(ii) ripping in a roadhead;

(iii) setting or withdrawing supports at or building packs at a face from which any of those minerals was in the course of being worked;

(iv) drilling shot holes at a face from which any of those minerals was in the course of being worked;

(v) for not more than six months, repairing or enlarging roads or driving cross measure drifts;

(vi) in the case of a master sinker or a deputy whose district consists of a shaft in the course of being sunk, sinking operations.