Safety Standards for Explosives at Metal and Nonmetal Mines

This final rule revises certain provisions of the Mine Safety and Health Administration's (MSHA) safety standards for explosives at metal and nonmetal mines. The final rule revises existing standards for separation of detonators from other explosives or blasting agents during storage in powder chests and during transportation. Additionally, it revises existing provisions related to loading and blasting of explosive materials. The final rule also expands the application of existing provisions concerning the protection of explosive materials from impact and exposure to high temperatures, and it revises and clarifies the existing provisions addressing static electricity dissipation during loading. The rule revises the existing preamble discussion for vehicles containing explosive material, and incorporates existing blast site security provisions into the loading and blasting standards. For the convenience of the mining community, MSHA has published the full text of the explosives standards for metal and nonmetal mines in this Federal Register document.