Terms & Conditions

1. Who we are

Company

NF Blast Consult and Training (Pty) Ltd, a private company

Registration number

2025/178170/07

Director

Nicolaas Francois (Nico) Alberts

Physical address

Unit 74 The Glen, 38 Wagenaar Street, Edenglen, Edenvale, Gauteng, 1609, South Africa. This is also our address for the service of legal documents.

Email

nico@nfblastconsult.co.za (general) · license@nfblastconsult.co.za (software licences)

Phone

+27 82 784 7033

Website

www.nfblastconsult.co.za

VAT

We are not registered for VAT, so no VAT is charged on our prices.

In these terms, "we", "us" and "our" mean NF Blast Consult and Training (Pty) Ltd. "You" means the person or company buying from us or using this website. "Program" means Ring Blast Designer, Tunnel Blast Designer or Surface Blast Designer.

2. Accepting these terms

By using this website, placing an order, paying online or installing one of our programs, you agree to these terms and to our Refund Policy. If you buy on behalf of a company or mine, you confirm that you are authorised to accept these terms for it.

3. Prices and payment

• All prices are in South African rand (ZAR). Because we are not VAT-registered, the price shown is the full price.
• Software licences cost R10 000 per licence per year, unless a different price is shown at checkout or on a written quote.
• You can pay online by card or Instant EFT through Payfast, or by bank transfer (EFT) against a quote or invoice.
• Card payments are processed on Payfast's secure payment page. We never see or store your card details.
• Cards issued outside South Africa are charged in rand. Your bank converts the amount and may add its own fees.
• A sale is concluded when your payment has been confirmed to us. We email you an invoice for every payment.

4. Software licence

When you pay for a licence, we grant you a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the program you paid for, subject to these terms. Each licence:

• is for one program on one computer. The licence key is locked to that computer's ID and will not work on another computer;
• runs for one year from the date the key is issued, unless the key shows a different expiry date;
• may be used by your employees and contractors on that computer for your own work and for the mines or customers you work for.

You may not:

• copy, share, sell, rent or lend the program or a licence key, except as these terms allow;
• try to bypass, change or disable the licensing, the trial limits or the expiry date;
• decompile, reverse-engineer or modify the program, except where the law allows it regardless of this term;
• remove our name, copyright notices or report disclaimers from the program or its reports.

If you break these rules, we may cancel the licence without a refund.

5. Free trial

Each program can be used free for 7 days before you buy, so that you can check it suits your work and runs on your computer. The trial includes the main design features, with some limits: exporting is switched off, you can save up to 3 designs, and reports are marked "free trial". Trial reports must not be presented as final designs.

6. Delivery of licence keys

• Licences are delivered by email only. Nothing is posted.
• When you buy online, you paste the request code from the program's activation screen. Once your payment is confirmed, your licence key and invoice are emailed to you automatically, normally within a few minutes, day or night.
• When you pay by EFT, we issue the key once the payment reflects in our bank account, normally within one working day.
• If you haven't received your key within one working day of payment, check your spam folder and then contact license@nfblastconsult.co.za.
• You must give us the correct request code from the computer the program will be used on. If a key was made for the wrong computer because of a mistake in the request code, we will issue a corrected key at no charge.

7. Moving a licence to another computer

If you replace, rebuild or reformat the computer, we will move the licence to the new computer free of charge, up to two times per licence year. Send the new computer's request code to license@nfblastconsult.co.za. By asking for a transfer, you confirm that the program will no longer be used on the old computer. Further transfers in the same year are by arrangement. A transfer does not extend the expiry date.

8. Renewal and expiry

• Licences do not renew automatically, and we never charge your card without you placing a new order.
• We email you a reminder about 30 days and 7 days before your licence expires, with a link to renew.
• When a licence expires, the program stops working on that computer until a new key is entered. Your saved design files stay on your computer and remain yours; they open again once the licence is renewed.
• Renewal prices are those on our website, or on a written quote, at the time of renewal.

9. Updates and support

• Program updates released during your licence year are free.
• A paid licence includes email support for the basic functions of the program: installing, activating and transferring the licence, opening and saving designs, printing reports, and reporting errors in the program.
• Support does not include teaching blast design or detailed use of the program for your particular blasts. That is covered by our Blast Design Software Training course, which is booked and paid for separately.
• We do our best to answer support emails promptly but cannot promise a set response time. Support is by email only, in English, during South African working days.

10. Responsibility for blast designs

Our programs are tools to help competent, qualified people design blasts. They use recognised industry formulae and methods, but blasting results depend on many site conditions that the program cannot know, such as rock structure, water, drilling accuracy, product performance and charging practice. You agree that:

• every design and report produced with our programs must be checked and approved by a competent person who is responsible for the blast, in line with the Mine Health and Safety Act, the Explosives Act and your mine's own standards and procedures;
• the program's results and warnings are guidance only, and do not replace professional judgement, site measurements or your legal duties;
• we are not responsible for the results of any blast, including fragmentation, overbreak, flyrock, ground vibration, air blast, damage, injury or loss, whether or not the design was made with our programs.

The same applies to advice given during training or consulting. It is given in good faith, but results depend on site conditions.

11. Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows:

• our programs are supplied "as is". We do not guarantee that they will be free of errors or work without interruption on every computer, although we will try to fix errors you report;
• we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, such as loss of production, profit, time, data or contracts;
• our total liability for any claim is limited to the amount you paid us for the licence or service concerned in the 12 months before the claim.

Nothing in these terms limits any right you have under the Consumer Protection Act or the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act that may not be excluded or limited by law, or our liability for gross negligence or fraud.

12. Refunds and cancellations

Refunds are set out in our Refund Policy, which forms part of these terms. In short: because every program has a free trial, a licence is not refundable once its key has been issued, except for duplicate payments or a licence we can't get working within 14 days.

Licence keys are delivered and activated electronically and can be tried for free first. To the extent the law allows, the 7-day cooling-off period for online purchases in the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act therefore does not apply to a licence key that has been issued.

13. Training, consulting and booklets

• Training courses and consulting work are quoted individually. The quote sets out the price, dates, what is included, travelling costs and payment terms. If anything in a quote differs from these terms, the quote applies to that booking.
• Pocket books are delivered by courier, or collected in Edenvale. Courier costs are added to the quote. Please check books when they arrive and tell us within 7 days if any are damaged or missing.

14. Intellectual property

The programs, their content and calculations, our training material, pocket books, videos, logo and this website belong to NF Blast Consult and Training (Pty) Ltd and are protected by copyright. A licence lets you use a program. It does not transfer ownership of it. The designs and reports you create with a program belong to you.

15. Privacy

We respect your privacy and handle personal information in line with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). The full details are in our Privacy Policy; a summary follows.

• What we collect: the details you give us when you order or contact us, such as your name, company, email, phone, country and delivery address, and, for software licences, the request code, which contains your computer ID and the program version.
• Why: to issue and manage your licence, invoice you, deliver orders, send licence and renewal reminders, give support, and meet our tax and legal record-keeping duties.
• Payments: card and Instant EFT payments are handled by Payfast. We receive confirmation of the payment, but never your card details.
• Sharing: we do not sell or share your information, except with service providers who help us run the business (our website host, email provider, Payfast and our accountant) or where the law requires it.
• How long: we keep sales and licence records for at least 5 years, as tax law requires.
• Your rights: you may ask to see, correct or delete the personal information we hold about you, unless we must keep it by law. Contact nico@nfblastconsult.co.za. You may also complain to the Information Regulator of South Africa.
• The programs themselves do not send your designs or personal information to us.

16. Applicable law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. If you have a complaint, please contact us first. Most problems can be sorted out quickly by email or phone. If a dispute can't be resolved, it will be dealt with by a competent South African court.

17. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The version on this page on the date of your order applies to that order. Licences already paid for keep the terms that applied when they were bought, unless a change is required by law.

Questions about these terms? Email nico@nfblastconsult.co.za or call +27 82 784 7033.