[Eric in the Ozarks]

I was mine manager for a couple of years at a two dragline operation. We used ANFO to shoot overburden and DuPont Tovex to shoot the coal. Most of our overburden shots were blast-cast, to move 30 percent of the material into the empty pit as we created the new pit.
When we got close to farm houses, we would "deck" the shot, splitting the column into two shots with two delays to reduce vibration. I saw one of these on a 80 foot deep bench where the scraper operator went within a few feet of the farmer's house. One shot could consume 10,000 pounds of ANFO.

[RightWhale]

Reclaimed land can be far superior to the natural land. In Fairbanks where water giants were used to clear 100 feet of frozen muck and then the floating dredges used to scoop gravel, the gravel left behind provides the most stable building surfaces around here. While modern mining requires settling ponds and dams and looks sweet only to engineers, when it is all over the land is much improved and has actual positive value.