General Mining Terms:
Mine: The site where minerals are extracted from the earth.
Miner: A person who works in a mine.
Ore: Rock or mineral containing a valuable metal that can be profitably extracted.
Deposit: A naturally occurring accumulation of valuable minerals.
Exploration: The process of searching for mineral deposits.
Extraction: The process of removing minerals from the earth.
Beneficiation: The treatment of mined material to improve its quality or remove impurities, often producing a "concentrate."
Tailings: Waste material remaining after the valuable minerals have been extracted from ore.
Overburden: The soil and rock that lie above a mineral deposit and must be removed to access it.
Claim: A piece of land claimed for mining purposes.
Types of Mining (for metals and other minerals):
Surface Mining: Used when deposits are close to the surface.
Open-pit mining: Creates a large, open hole in the ground (like a pit or quarry).
Strip mining: Removes earth in long strips to uncover shallow, bedded deposits.
Mountaintop removal: Blasting off the top of a mountain to access mineral seams.
Placer mining: Sifting valuable metals from sediments in riverbeds, beach sands, or other alluvial deposits (often for gold, platinum).
Underground Mining (Subsurface Mining): Used for deeper deposits.
Shaft: A vertical or inclined passage providing access to underground workings.
Adit: A horizontal or nearly horizontal passage from the surface into a mine.
Drift: A horizontal passageway underground that follows a vein or seam of ore.
Stope: An excavation made in a mine to remove ore from a vein.
Room and Pillar mining: Creating "rooms" to extract minerals while leaving pillars to support the roof.
Longwall mining: Removing entire sections of material while allowing the roof to collapse behind.
Block caving: A bulk mining method for extracting large ore bodies.
In-situ mining (Solution Mining): Involves injecting a solution underground to dissolve minerals, which are then pumped to the surface (primarily for uranium, but also some copper and lithium).
Dredging: Mining minerals from underwater deposits (e.g., sand, gravel, some rare earth minerals, deep-sea metals).
Mine Workings & Structures:
Level: A horizontal opening or working horizon in a mine.
Back (or Roof): The upper part of an underground mining cavity.
Face: The working area where material is being extracted.
Bench: A horizontal ledge or step in an open pit or stope.
Headframe: The structure supporting hoisting sheaves at the top of a mine shaft.
Portal: An entrance to an underground mine (tunnel, drift, or adit).
Chute: An opening for conveying ore from a stope into mine cars.
Processes & Equipment:
Blasting: Using explosives to break up rock.
Drilling: Creating holes for blasting or exploration (e.g., diamond drill, blast hole).
Crushing/Grinding (Comminution): Reducing the size of ore particles.
Milling: Processing ore to separate valuable minerals from waste.
Flotation: A milling process where valuable mineral particles attach to bubbles and float.
Leaching: A chemical process for extracting valuable minerals from ore using solvents (e.g., heap leaching, bio-leaching, cyanidation for gold).
Smelting: Heating ore to extract metal in a blast furnace.
Refining: Further purifying the extracted metal.
Assay: A chemical test to determine the amount of valuable metals in an ore sample.
Conveyor: A system for moving material.
Hoist: Machine for raising and lowering conveyances in a shaft.
Geological & Mineralogical Terms:
Vein (or Lode): A mineral deposit in solid rock, often appearing as a distinct band.
Host rock: The rock surrounding an ore deposit.
Gangue: Non-profitable minerals in an ore deposit.
Grade: The amount of metal in each tonne of ore.
Mineralization: The presence of minerals within a rock.
Anomaly: A departure from the norm, indicating potential mineralization.
Alluvial deposit: Sedimentary material deposited by water (often associated with placer mining).
Native metal: Metal occurring in nature in pure, uncombined form (e.g., native gold).
Base metals: Non-precious metals (e.g., copper, lead, zinc, nickel).
Precious metals: High-value metals (e.g., gold, silver, platinum).
This is a comprehensive, though not exhaustive, list. The specific terms used can vary depending on the type of metal being mined and the regional practices.
