Aim of this thesis was an investigation into the drilling and blasting work in the open pit talc mine of Rio Tinto Minerals. In a first step the actual state of drilling and blasting was determined. For that purpose all aspects of drilling and blasting were examined, from the planning process at the beginning, a wall surveying program, the drilling process, the charging of the holes up to the documentation and measurement of ground vibrations and blast results. In a second step the current state was compared to the latest technology in drilling and blasting and a gap-analysis conducted. It was found that in some areas already a better utilisation of available equipment would contribute very much to a process towards the latest technology. Nevertheless in other areas a bigger investment, like a new automatic drilling and GPS-guided surface crawler is necessary to bring the open pit mine to a higher level of technology. What is common for all areas of work is that a thorough planning process is needed as a basis. This is also recommended as a target for the future, to build up a management system for the whole drilling and blasting process as a central guidance and planning tool to make the process more economic and safer.