There have been a number of incidents in the past occurred across the mining industry which have been associated with drilling and blasting in hot strata condition. Higher strata temperature affect bulk, packaged and initiating products over time, expedite the rate of degradation and potential failure which may lead to a disaster. Safety is of prime consideration while blasting and the charging blast-holes in hot strata conditions, which are to be dealt with great safety and precautions. The most important factors are the type of explosives used, the practices and procedures followed while charging and blasting of hot holes. A rigorous and fully tested set of procedures are applied for each blast, aimed at limiting the risk of an accidental detonation. Paper discusses points which should be taken care of while framing safety codes to deal with blasting in hot strata condition, also the steps undertaken to carryout charging and blasting in hot strata blast-hole in opencast coal mines.

Partha Das Sharma is Graduate in Mining Engineering from IIT,India(1979) & was associated with number of mining and explosives organizations before joining the present organization,Solar Group of Explosives Industries at Nagpur (India),few years ago.He has presented number of technical papers in many of the seminars and journals on varied topics.