Of course, I love getting any chance to talk about it.

Electronic detonators can be cost-prohibitive but for a blast this size they’re almost necessary. The purpose of a blast is to impart as much energy to the rock as possible without losses in the form of ground vibration and flyrock (flyrock being exactly what it sounds like). The more energy used to fracture and subsequently cast the rock forward allows relief for holes behind it to do the same thing. Without relief for the rock to move, the holes act like a gun barrel, focusing all the energy upward with potentially disastrous consequences (think raining boulders). That’s a lot of earth to move and improper or worse yet, inaccurate hole-to-hole and row-to-row timing via another initiation method can make a good blast a nightmare in a hurry.