Occupation
Drill and blast technician
Drill and blast technicians design, load, and fire the blasts that break rock on mines, quarries, and civil projects. The work covers marking and checking drill patterns, handling explosives and initiation systems, and controlling the exclusion zone before firing. Explosives handling is tightly regulated and the role carries permit and record-keeping obligations wherever it is done.
Also known as: Blaster · Shotfirer · Drill and blast operator · Explosives technician
Saving keeps the career family and this occupation as your private target role on this device.
Occupation content
Part of Utilities, energy, mining and resources
A visual day in the work
What the work involves
Mark out and check drill patterns against the blast design and actual face conditions.
Measure and log blastholes for depth, water, and deviation before loading.
Load explosives and initiation systems and tie in the firing sequence.
Secure the exclusion zone, confirm all clear, and fire the blast under the shotfiring procedure.
Inspect the muck pile and face afterwards for misfires and unstable ground.
Maintain explosives magazine, transport, and usage records to regulatory requirements.
Entry-route stepper
How people commonly enter
An explosives handling and shotfiring course combined with supervised experience under a certified blaster.
Progressing from a drill operator or blast crew helper role through on-the-job training.
A college certificate in mining or drilling and blasting technology.
Transferring from quarrying, tunnelling, or military explosives experience with civilian certification added.
Typical training: Short course or on-the-job training
Licensing: Regulated in most jurisdictions. Confirm the current requirement with the regulator in your province, state, or country.
Work-context map
Typical work context
- Outdoors
- Physically active
- High responsibility
- Team based
- Shift work
Outdoors · Physically active · High responsibility · Team based · Shift work
Related interests
- Realistic (hands-on)
- Conventional (organizing)
Realistic (hands-on) · Conventional (organizing)
Related aptitude preparation
These are preparation links only. They do not measure eligibility for this occupation and no score here qualifies or disqualifies anyone.
Skills to practise
Practice suites
Related learning
Family-level learning links for Utilities, energy, mining and resources.
Official sources
Labour-market facts such as pay and employment projections are not reproduced here. Open an official source below for figures, with its own geography and reference period.
Labour-market context (not part of exploration match)
This is broad family-level context for Utilities, energy, mining and resources in Canada, not a figure for Drill and blast technician. It does not affect matching scores and is not an eligibility determination.
This is a broad Utilities, energy, mining and resources family. Explore the official profile for the chosen occupation; entry education and training can differ within the family.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Utilities, energy, mining and resources: education pathways
Some roles in Utilities, energy, mining and resources may be regulated. Confirm whether the specific role requires registration, certification, or a jurisdiction-specific licence.
Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period
Utilities, energy, mining and resources: licensing
Find jobs
These are live, user-controlled searches on each source's own site for “ Drill and blast technician”. Novus Learn does not fetch, store, or rank these results, and job availability never changes your exploration match score.
Related occupations
Learn → Practise → Prepare → Apply
Continue from this occupation
Choose a learning action because it supports the work, not because a test score predicts career suitability.
When you get to the application
Novus Learn stops at preparation. These two Novus tools cover the paperwork, and like this site they run entirely in your browser. Nothing you upload to them leaves your device.
Novus Learn hands you real PDFs: study guides, practice packs, answer keys, career summaries. PDF Studio is where you merge several into one revision booklet, pull out the pages you actually need, or lock a file before you send it.
Career Discovery ends with a profile photo and an application. This is where you clean up a headshot without handing the file to a server.