Mining has made great progress in recent years – The invention of dynamite and continuous mining - these two

things led to
a big milestone in mining
Dynamite is a type of explosive. It is a strong and powerful substance that is used to blast or break apart rock, concrete, and
other materials.
Continuous mining is a method for extracting softer minerals, such as coal, without the use of explosives.
The term "mining stages" refers to the different phases or steps involved in the process of extracting natural resources, such
as coal, gold, and diamonds, from the Earth.
The mining process can be divided into 5 different stages: prospecting, exploration, development, exploitation and
reclamation

1) Prospecting – It includes low impact work to search for coal or nonmetallic mineral deposits in a selected area
Mineral deposits are either located above or below the Earth’s surface.
Prospectors use either direct or indirect techniques to search for mineral deposits:
- Direct – limited to surface deposits, involves visual examination either at an exposure of
the deposit (outcrop) or loose fragments (float) that have weathered away from it.
- Indirect – search for hidden mineral deposits. It is based on scientific approach, and
sophisticated technology is being used in order to find hidden deposits, such as geophysics, geochemistry and geobotany.
Geophysics - detecting anomalies using physical measurements of gravitational, seismic, magnetic, electrical,
electromagnetic, and radiometric variables of the earth. The methods are applied from the air, using aircraft and satellites.

2) Exploration – reserve estimation

*Prospecting and exploration are linked and sometimes combined, and they are often the same
Exploration is more refined (clear) than prospecting. Exploration generally shifts to surface and subsurface locations, using a
variety of measurements to obtain a more positive picture of the extent and grade of the ore body. He or she estimates the
mining costs, evaluates the recovery of the valuable minerals determines the environmental costs, and assesses other
foreseeable factors in an effort to reach a conclusion about the profitability of the mineral deposit.
*A grade of mineral deposit is its richness
Sampling – a process termed sampling is when a piece of rock or mineral is being removed from its original place. A sample is
a small piece of material that is collected during an investigation or study. Samples may be collected by chipping, drilling and
other techniques, like making borehole logs to find geological structure of a deposit.
An evaluation of the samples enables the geologist or mining engineer to calculate the tonnage and grade, or richness, of the
mineral deposit – all in order to make a conclusion about profitability about mineral deposit (must be financially valuable to
proceed) and to answer the question whether the property is mineral deposit or an ore body. Conclusions may determine
whether to develop the project, move it to another part or abandon the mine.
- Ore body – a large deposit of a mineral/s, below the earth's crust.
- Ore – a naturally occurring solid material from which a metal or valuable minerals can be extracted profitably

3) Development – opening of a mineral deposit (ore → ore body)

If the prospecting stage is successful, the next step is to develop a plan for extracting the minerals from the Earth. This may
involve building roads, tunnels, or other infrastructure to access the deposit. In order to access the ore, the overburden (soil
or rock covering the deposit) must be removed, or openings need to be created so as to access deeply buried deposits.
Permits – a lot of preliminary (trial) work is needed prior to any development taking place including acquiring water and
mineral rights, buying surface lands, arranging for financing and preparing permit applications and an environmental impact
statement. It determines the striping ratio.
Stripping ratio – the amount of waste (or overburden) that must be removed to release a given ore quantity. The stripping
ratio should be as low as possible.
*Uprošćeno: The first step in any new project is conducting a site. This process involves getting the necessary water and
mineral rights, buying surface lands, arranging for financing and preparing permit (allowance) applications and an
environmental impact statement.
Underground mining in development – Underground mining is generally more complex, expensive and dangerous than
surface methods and it is often used to reach deeper deposits. Surface mines are typically used for more shallow and less
valuable deposits. Generally, the shafts, slopes and adits, which are used, have to be carefully planned to allow efficient
mining, safety and stability of access openings.
- Shafts/slopes – an entrance to the surface mine under some angle (slopes are more dangerous)
- Аdits – an entrance to an underground mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal

4) Exploitation – the minerals are extracted from the earth using various methods, such as surface mining, underwater
mining or underground mining.
5) Reclamation (closing) – the final stage in which the land is restored to its natural state and any leftover waste is properly
disposed of. This helps to minimize the environmental impact of mining and ensures that the land can be used for other
purposes in the future.

Surface mining methods: mechanical extraction and aqueous extraction

 MECHANICAL EXTRACTION:
Open-pit or open-cast mining – a mechanical extraction method is a surface mining technique that extracts minerals from an
open pit in the ground. Open-pit is one of the most common mining methods used and starts from the Earth's surface,
maintaining exposure to the surface throughout the extraction periods. It is connected to low stripping ratio. It results in
low operating costs, high productivity and good safety conditions

 AQUEOUS EXTRACTION METHOD – in this method, the extraction of the mineral/ore from the Earth depends on the
water. Can be classified in two categories:
• Placer mining – a process of extraction of placer deposit (concentration of loose minerals that has been redeposited
in unconsolidated form by the action of the water). Types of placer mining:
▪ Hydraulicking – in this method, a high-pressure stream of water is directed against the mineral deposit to
undercut it and cave it (tar sands)
▪ Dredging – the process of underwater mining of a placer deposit lying over the floor of natural pond, lake, river,
sea-shore, etc. scooping out mud, weeds, and rubbish with a dredge.
• Solution mining – the process in which mineral ores are recovered by leaching, dissolution or melting process.
▪ Leaching – a chemical extraction of metal or minerals from the limited deposit or from material already mined.

Underground mining methods: unsupported, supported, and caving

 UNSUPPORTED is used to extract tabular mineral deposits. These methods are termed ‘unsupported’ because they do
not use any artificial pillars to assist in the support of the openings.
▪ Room-and-pillar mining – “rooms” of ore are dug out while "pillars" of untouched material are left to support
the roof overburden.
▪ Stope-and-pillar mining – the pillars are spaced randomly and located in low-grade ore so that the high-grade
ore can be extracted.
▪ Shrinkage stoping – a method of mining in which broken ore materials are removed from a narrow, vertical
opening.
▪ Sublevel stoping is used in mining to remove ore from several different levels but collect it at one level below
the surface.
Stoping is the process of extracting the desired ore or other mineral from an underground mine, leaving behind an open
space known as a stope.
 SUPPORTED – we use pillars of the original rock mass as the ultimate form of ground control in an underground mine,
because they are capable of providing near-rigid support.
▪ Cut-and-fill is the most common method used in steeply dipping metal deposits. Traditional cut-and fill methods
are practiced both in an upward direction (overhand) and a downward one (underhand). As each horizontal slice
is taken, its voids are filled with various materials.
▪ Square-set-stoping is a mining method where timbers are used to create a grid-like structure in the rock. As the
mining progresses, new timber sets are added to fill the gaps. This method is called "square-set stoping" because
the timbers are arranged in a square pattern.
 CAVING – cave-mining methods are those in which a mine’s ore body and surrounding rock are collapsed at the same
time that mining occurs.
▪ Block caving – has application to inclined or vertical, massive deposits, almost exclusively metallic or
nonmetallic.
▪ Sublevel caving – has application to inclined or vertical, massive deposits, almost exclusively metallic or
nonmetallic.
▪ Longwall mining is used in relatively flat-lying and tabular deposits such as coal, primarily.