How to become a shotfirer or blaster

Official title: Shotfirers and blasters

Also called: Blaster, Powderman, Powder monkey, Shotfirer

Shotfirers and blasters position, assemble and detonate explosives at mining, quarrying and demolition sites.

Main tasks

• Ensuring that workplace safety and explosives handling, storage and transport procedures and regulations are followed
• Planning and giving instructions for the layout, depth and diameter of blast holes
• Checking depth and cleanliness of blast holes
• Determining quantity and type of explosives to be used
• Loading explosives into blast holes
• Assembling, or directing other workers to assemble, primer charges using detonators and explosive cartridges, and attaching electrical wires, fuses and detonating cords to primers
• Connecting wires, fuses and detonator cords into series, testing electrical circuits and repairing malfunctions, and connecting series to blasting machines
• Covering charges, filling blast holes with rock dust, sand and other materials, and tamping material to compact charges
• Ensuring that all explosives are detonated, and reporting and attending to misfires
• Declaring blast areas safe before and after detonation of explosives

Pay · Outlook · AI and this job

• Median pay: HK$21,000 a month
• About 387,500 people in 2025, and about 403,200 projected by 2028. (+4.1%)
• Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.

Related jobs

• Underwater divers
• Craft and related workers not elsewhere classified
• Product graders and testers (excluding foods and beverages)
• Fumigators and other pest and weed controllers

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Questions people ask

Do you need a degree to become a shotfirer or blaster?

Usually not. Only 8% of people in this job hold a bachelor's degree or higher.

Will AI change the work of a shotfirer or blaster?

Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.

Sources

• Census and Statistics Department (2021 Population Census): 2021 Population Census, Interactive Data Dissemination Service: working population by occupation (38 groups) and sex, age, education, income; median income and field of education (9 groups) (2021 Population Census), retrieved 4 October 2026
• Census and Statistics Department (General Household Survey): Median monthly employment earnings by occupation (9 groups), excluding foreign domestic helpers (Table 210-06317A); employed persons by occupation, age and sex (210-06307A) and by industry (210-06308A) (2025 annual (series to 2026-07)), retrieved 4 October 2026
• Labour and Welfare Bureau; tables published by C&SD: Mid-term Update of Manpower Projection to 2028: supplementary statistical tables (5 occupation groups, 17 selected industries) (2025 to 2028 (published 2026-09)), retrieved 4 October 2026
• International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026

Updated 4 October 2026