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Dictionary of Mining, Mineral and Related Terms (an EduMine tool)

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Original content compiled by US Bureau of Mines 1996; XML version by EduMine 2000.

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miningThe science, technique, and business of mineral discovery and exploitation. Strictly, the word connotes underground work directed to severance and treatment of ore or associated rock. Practically, it includes opencast work, quarrying, alluvial dredging, and combined operations, including surface and underground attack and ore treatment.mining geologymining engineeringPryor, 3mining advancingA method of mining by which the ore or coal is mined as the excavation advances from the shaft or main opening.mining retreatingFaymining campA colony of miners settled temporarily near a mine or a goldfield.Standard, 2A term loosely applied to any mining town.Faymining captainPerson in charge of mining operations.Craigiemining caseA frame of a shaft, or gallery, composed of four pieces of plank.Standard, 2mining claimThat portion of the public mineral lands that a miner, for mining purposes, takes hold of and possesses in accordance with mining laws.A mining claim is a parcel of land containing valuable minerals in the soil or rock. A location is the act of appropriating such a parcel of land according to law or to certain established rules.claimplacer claimlocationIn the General Mining Law of 1872, that portion of a vein or lode and of the adjoining surface, or of the surface and subjacent material to which a claimant has acquired the right of possession by virtue of a compliance with such statute and the local laws and rules of the district within which the location may be situated. Independent of acts of the U.S. Congress providing a mode for the acquisition of title to the mineral lands of the United States, the term has always been applied to a portion of such lands to which the right of exclusive possession and enjoyment by a private person or persons, has been asserted by actual occupation, and compliance with the mining laws and regulations.holdingRickettsDistinction between mining claim and location is that they are not always synonymous and may often mean different things; a mining claim may refer to a parcel of land containing valuable mineral in its soil or rock, while location is the act of appropriating such land according to certain established rules. A mining claim may include as many adjoining locations as the locator may make or purchase, and the ground covered by all, though constituting what is claimed for mining purposes, will constitute a mining claim and will be so designated.RickettsTitle issued by the Government concerned to an individual or group, which grants that individual or group the right to exploit mineral wealth in a specified area by approved methods in accordance with the ruling laws and regulations.Pryor, 3A claim on mineral lands.AGImining compassAn instrument giving qualitative indications of anomalies in the magnetic field.Schieferdeckermining dialdialmining disasterAn accident in a mine in which a large number of people are killed.major mine disastermining diseaseanthracosisinfective jaundicenystagmuspneumoconiosissilicosissimple silicosismining districtA section of country usually designated by name, having described or understood boundaries within which minerals are found and worked under rules and regulations prescribed by the miners therein. There is no limit to its territorial extent and its boundaries may be changed if vested rights are not thereby interfered with.Rickettsmining ditchA ditch for conducting water used in mining.mining sluiceCraigiemining engineerA person qualified by education, training, and experience in mining engineering.NelsonIf qualified and of standing in the profession, a trained engineer with knowledge of the science, economics, and arts of mineral location, extraction, concentration and sale, and the administrative and financial problems of practical importance in connection with the profitable conduct of mining. Usually a specialist in one or more branches of work. Activities may include prospecting, surveying, sampling and valuation, technical underground management, milling, assaying, ventilation control, layout of workings and plant, geological examination, and company administration.Pryor, 3One versed in, or one who follows, as a calling or profession, the business of mining engineering. Graduates of technical mining schools are given the degree of engineer of mines and authority to sign the letters E.M. after their names.mining engineeringThe planning and design of mines, taking into account economic, technical, and geologic factors; also supervision of the extraction, and sometimes the preliminary refinement, of the raw material.; mining geology.miningAGImining explosiveOne of the high explosives used for mining and quarrying. They can be divided into four main classes: gelatins; semigelatins; nitroglycerin powders, and non-nitroglycerin explosives, including water gels, emulsions, and ANFO.mining geologyThe study of geologic structures and particularly the modes of formation and occurrence of mineral deposits and their discovery.ore geologyIn coal mining, the study of: rock formations, particularly with reference to the Carboniferous System; the mode of formation of coal seams, their discovery and correlation.geologyNelsonThe study of the geologic aspects of mineral deposits, with particular regard to problems associated with mining.miningmining engineeringAGImining hazardAny of the dangers peculiar to the winning and working of coal and minerals. These include collapse of ground, explosion of released gas, inundation by water, spontaneous combustion, inhalation of dust and poisonous gases, etc.Nelsonmining headThe mechanism on a continuous mining machine that breaks down the coal.mining leaseA legal contract for the right to work a mine and extract the mineral or other valuable deposits from it under prescribed conditions of time, price, rental, or royalties.mineral leasemining locomotiveA small locomotive for use in underground haulage, sometimes consisting of a car bearing a powerful electric motor, built very low and operated through a trolley. May also be operated by electricity from batteries.Standard, 2mining machineA coal-cutting machine.Standard, 2mining machine operatormachine minermining-machine-operator helpermachine helpermining machine truckA truck used for transporting shortwall mining machines. Track-mounted trucks are necessarily limited in use to sections employing track. Crawler-type trucks are capable of transporting the cutting machine without need of track and without benefit of ropes.Jones, 1mining methodAny of the systems employed in the exploitation of coal seams and orebodies. The method adopted depends on a large number of factors, mainly, the quality, shape, size, and depth of the deposit; accessibility and capital available.; stoping methods.coal mining methodsmetal miningNelsonmining ore from top downtop slicing and cover cavingmining propertyProperty, esp. land, valued for its mining possibilities.Craigiemining purposesThe term "mining purposes" as used in connection with mill-site locations, is very comprehensive, and may include any reasonable use for mining purposes that the quartz lode mining claim may require for its proper working and development. This may be very little, or it may be a great deal. The locator of a quartz lode mining claim is required to do only $100 worth of work each year until obtaining a patent.Rickettsmining recorderIn a mining camp, a person selected to keep a record of all mining claims and properties.Mathewsmining retreatingA process of mining by which the ore, or coal, is untouched until after all the gangways, etc., are driven, when the work of extraction begins at the boundary and progresses toward the shaft.mining advancingFaymining rightUpon a specific piece of ground, a right to enter upon and occupy the ground for the purpose of working it, either by underground excavations or open workings, to obtain from it the mineral ores which may be deposited therein.Rickettsmining shieldA cover or canopy developed by the U.S. Bureau of Mines for the protection of mine workers and machines at the face of a mechanized coal heading. Hydraulic rams telescope and steer the shield forward as the face advances. It enables continuous miners to operate with greater safety.Nelsonmining sluiceAn artificial channel or passage for water used in mining.mining ditchmining systemWork, as it is commenced on the ground, is such that, if continued, will lead to a discovery and development of the veins or orebodies that are supposed to be in the claim, or, if these are known, that the work will facilitate the extraction of the ores and minerals.mining theodoliteA theodolite having particular features of design that make it suitable as an underground surveying instrument; e.g., incorporating an arrangement for the centering movement to be above the foot screws.BS, 7mining titleA claim, exclusive prospecting license, concession, right, or lease. A grant under laws and mining regulations to a person or group of approved persons of the right to develop and exploit a properly delineated area for its mineral wealth.Pryor, 3mining-type visibility meterAn instrument to facilitate observation of the essential elements of visual tasks in coal mines. It is a brightness meter in which the comparison field is illuminated by a cap lamp headpiece attached outside the instrument. No internal electrical circuit exists other than that which connects the photocell to the microammeter and the meter can therefore be used anywhere in a safety-lamp mine without restrictions.Roberts, 2mining underThe act of digging under coal or in a soft strata in coal seams.mining widthThe minimum width necessary for the extraction of ore regardless of the actual width of ore-bearing rock.stoping width