The high density of site-mixed emulsion explosives, which consume excessive explosives to fragment soft to medium-hard rock, has always been a matter of concern to mine operators. Therefore, the authors have conceptualized a novel technique called distributed spherical air-gap blasting, which reduces the amount of explosives consumed. In this paper, a comparative evaluation of the rock fragmentation caused by the distributed spherical air-gap blasting technique, conventional blasting technique, and other contemporary techniques for explosive consumption reduction is presented. The analysis indicates that the conventional technique has the maximum percentage of particles <100 mm and an exceptionally low percentage of D10, D20, and D50 sizes. The percentage of particles in the size range of 100-800 mm is the highest for the distributed spherical air-gap blasting technique. The blasts carried out using plastic-tube, air-decking, and plastic-bottle techniques exhibited a substantial percentage of particles in the >800-mm size range. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.