Detonation of explosives during rock excavation in surface mining produces both atmospherically and seismically propagating disturbances. By manipulating the difference in arrival times of the air blast and ground motion, shot‐to‐recorder distance can be determined with only one recording station. This shot‐to‐recorder distance is needed for automatic development of ground motion attenuation curves with automatic recording devices and is generally helpful in mine activity detection. With two recording stations, the location of the blast may be determined even if the stations are not time synchronized. Data from production blasting at a coal mine were evaluated to verify the method proposed herein. The blast location as determined by the difference in arrival times of the atmospherically and seismically propagating disturbances showed excellent agreement with the location of blasts as provided by field personnel. The method may be employed to detect any explosive activity that produces both types of disturbances.