Outline of mining

Basic Concepts

Mining engineering

Resource extraction

Basic terms

Mineral

Rock (geology), an aggregate material usually made up of a number of minerals

Ore, rock containing a desired mineral

Ore genesis, the geological processes by which ore is formed and deposited

Ore grade, the amount of a desired mineral or metal that a quantity of ore contains

high grade ores are rich in the mineral desired, low-grade ores have less of the mineral desired

Gangue, minerals within the ore that are not desired; these are removed during ore processing

Vein (geology) a geological formation that often contains ore

Overburden, the material on top of a given mineral deposit (in surface mining, it has to be removed)

Finding ore

Prospecting

Mineral exploration

Materials mined

Some examples of materials that are extracted from the earth by mining include:

Base metals

Bauxite (Aluminium)

Cassiterite (Tin)

Chromite (Chromium)

Cinnabar (Mercury)

Cobaltite (Cobalt)

Coltan (Niobium and Tantalum)

Columbite (Niobium)

Copper - see List of copper ores

Ilmenite (Titanium)

Iron ore (Iron)

Galena (Lead)

Magnesite (Magnesium)

Malachite (Copper)

Molybdenite (Molybdenum)

Pentlandite (Nickel)

Pyrolusite (Manganese)

Scheelite (Tungsten)

Sphalerite (Zinc)

Tantalite (Tantalum)

Wolframite (Tungsten)

Baryte (Barium)

Beryl (Beryllium and Gemstones)

Clay

Construction aggregates

Gravel - see Gravel pit

Sand - see Sand mining

Diamonds

Dolomite (ornamental stone, Magnesium)

Fossil fuels

Coal - see Coal mining

Oil sands

Oil shale - see Oil shale industry and Shale oil extraction

Gemstones

Kaolinite

Limestone

Phosphorite (Phosphate)

Precious metals

Gold - see Gold mining

Silver - see Silver mining

Platinum

Potash

Rare earth elements

Slate - see Slate industry

Rock salt

Stone - see Quarry

List of decorative stones

Sulfur

Uranium ore

Surface mining

Surface mining, mining conducted down into the ground, but with the sky open above

Open-pit mining, where the overburden is removed and put in a different location, leaving a large pit at the end.

Strip mining, where the overburden is stripped off and placed onto the area where the mineral (usually coal) has already been mined out, allowing the surface to be returned to roughly how it was before

Mountaintop removal mining, where the overburden on a mountain is pushed off the mountain into the adjacent valley

Quarrying

Placer mining

Dredging

Hydraulic mining, using high-pressure jets of water to blast soil or hillsides apart

Underground mining

Sub-surface mining, mining conducted underground

Two main types of underground mining, classified by the characteristic of the rock being mined:

Underground mining (hard rock)

Underground mining (soft rock)

There are three directions by which an underground mine may be conducted:

Drift mining, mining horizontally

Shaft mining, mining vertically

Slope mining, mining at an inclined angle

Stoping is the process of extracting out the ore from underground, leaving a hole called a stope

Room and pillar

Longwall mining

Retreat mining

Fire-setting, a method used in stoping by setting fires to timber and letting the resulting collapse break up the rock

Other methods

Borehole mining

Box cut

Deepsea mining

Glory hole (petroleum production)

Heap leaching

In-situ leach

Landfill mining

Mine reclamation

Omega Hydraulic Diggings

Quartz reef mining

Heavy machinery

Steam shovel, used from the 19th century to the 1930s

Power shovel, derived from the steam shovel, but using electricity instead of steam

Excavator, derived from the steam shovel, but using hydraulics or pneumatics instead of steam

Draglines use buckets attached to long cable lines, rather than affixed to a beam

Bucket-wheel excavator, the largest moving land machines ever built

Dredge

Blasting

Explosives

Gunpowder or black powder, used from the 17th century to the mid-19th century

Dynamite, used from the mid-19th century into the 20th century, still used some today

ANFO, used from the 20th century, and the primary explosive in use today

Blasting gear

Detonator, a small explosive charge used to set off the main explosive

Blasting machine, a device used to generate or send an electric charge to the denators

Transport

Vertical equipment

Hoist (mining)

Winding engine

Headframe

Equipment for transporting miners

Man engine

Mantrip

Engines used in mining

Archimedes' screw

Beam engine

Drilling rig

Loader (equipment)

Wheel tractor-scraper

Liquid mining

Pumpjack

Wellhead

Subsea

Safety and environment

Safety lamp

Miner's canary

Air classifier

Movement and Surveying Radar

Processing

Ore dressing

General methods of ore processing

Froth flotation

Trommel

Methods peculiar to gold placer mining. Gold is much denser than many other minerals, various methods use this to separate it out:

Gold panning, uses a pan in water to wash material

Rocker box

Sluice box

Drywasher, used where there is insuffician

Extractive metallurgy

Pyrometallurgy, using heat

Smelting

Cupellation

Hydrometallurgy, using aqueous solutions

Leaching, using an acid (lixiviant) to remove. Commonly used for gold and copper

Amalgamation, using liquid mercury to extract the metal. Used to separate out silver and gold.

Electrometallurgy, using electricity to separate out metals

Mining waste

Spoil tip, a pile where overburden is placed (which has NOT been processed)

Tailings, waste mineral material (gangue) leftover AFTER processing

Slag, material leftover from smelting

Acid mine drainage, liquid leached out of mines

Mining hazards and safety

Bootleg mining

Claustrophobia

Deformation monitoring

Coal mining debate

Damp (mining)

After damp

Black damp

Fire damp

Stink damp

White damp

Energy law

Mine disaster

Mine exploration

Mine fire

Mine rescue

Mining accident

Mining induced subsidence

Geography of mining

List of diamond mines

List of uranium mines

Mining of specific minerals, by country

Bentonite production, by country

Bismuth production, by country

Feldspar production, by country

Fluorite production, by country

Manganese production, by country

Mine production of gold, by country

Uranium production, by country

History of mining

Main article: History of mining

Cornish stamps

Davy lamp

De re metallica

Fire-setting

Freeminer

Geordie lamp

Gold rush

History of coal mining

Hurrying

Hushing

Mining innovations during the Industrial Revolution

School of mines

Economics of mining

List of mining companies

Future of mining

Biomining

Asteroid mining

People associated with mining

miner, is a person who is involved in the act of mining

prospector, a person who is expert in searching for and assessing the value of

Mining scholars

Georg Agricola - author of De re metallica

Harrison Schmitt - American geologist, astronaut, retired senator

Paul Worsey

Richard Redmayne

Robert Hunt (scientist)

Ronald F. Tylecote

Russell Walter Fox

Organizations

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

National Mining Hall of Fame, in the United States

Leaders and innovators in mining

Archimedes – invented the Archimedes' screw

Charles Steen

Daniel Guggenheim

Ed Schieffelin

George Stephenson – inventor of the Geordie lamp

Henry Beecher Dierdorff – American inventor of mining equipment

Herbert Hoover, engineer and writer on mining engineering (later President of the United States)

Horace Austin Warner Tabor

Humphry Davy – inventor of the Davy lamp

Meyer Guggenheim

Paddy Martinez

William Boyce Thompson

William Reid Clanny – inventor of the first safety lamp