INTRODUCTION TO MINING

1-1 Mining Terminology

There are many terms and expressions unique to mining that characterize the
field and identify the user of such terms as a ‘‘mining person.’’
The student of mining is thus advised to become familiar with all the terms
used in mining, particularly those that are peculiar to either mines or minerals.

 The following three terms are closely related:

Mine: an excavation made in the earth to extract minerals
Mining: the activity, occupation, and industry concerned with the
extraction
of minerals. Or Mining is extracting ore or minerals from the ground.

Mining engineering: the practice of applying engineering principles to the

development, planning, operation, closure, and reclamation of mines.

 Some terms distinguish various types of mined minerals. Geologically, one

can distinguish the following mineral categories:
Mineral: a naturally occurring inorganic element or compound having an
orderly internal structure and a characteristic chemical composition,
crystal form, and physical properties.
Rock: any naturally formed aggregate of one or more types of mineral
particles

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 Economic differences in the nature of mineral deposits is evident in the.
following terms:
Ore: a mineral deposit that has sufficient utility and value to be mined at a
profit.
Gangue: the valueless mineral particles within an ore deposit that must be
discarded.
Waste: the material associated with an ore deposit that must be mined to
get at the ore and must then be discarded. Gangue is a particular type of
waste.

 A further subdivision of the types of minerals mined by humankind is also

common. These terms are often used in the industry to differentiate between
the fuels, metals, and nonmetallic minerals.
The following are the most common terms used in this differentiation:
Metallic ores: those ores of the ferrous metals (iron, manganese, molybdenum,
and tungsten),the base metals (copper, lead, zinc, and tin),the precious metals
(gold, silver, the platinum group metals),and the radioactive minerals (uranium,
thorium, and radium).
Nonmetallic minerals (also known as industrial minerals): the nonfuel mineral
ores that are not associated with the production of metals. These include
phosphate, potash, halite, trona, sand, gravel, limestone, sulfur, and many
others.
Fossil fuels (also known as mineral fuels): the organic mineral substances
that can be utilized as fuels, such as coal, petroleum, natural gas , coal bed
methane, and tar sands.
It should be noted that the mining engineer is associated with the
extraction of nearly all these mineral resources. However, the production
of petroleum and natural gas has evolved into a separate industry with a
specialized technology of its own.
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 The essence of mining in extracting mineral wealth from the earth is to
drive an excavation or excavations from the surface to the mineral deposit.
 If the excavation used for mining is entirely open or operated from
the surface, it is termed a surface mine.
 If the excavation consists of openings for human entry below the
earth’s surface, it is called an underground mine.
 The mining method distinguish by:
 Details of the procedure
 Layout
 Equipment used in the mine the.
 The mining method is determined by the geologic, physical,
environmental, economic, and legal circumstances that pertain to
the ore deposit being mined.

 Mining is never properly done in isolation, nor is it an entity in itself. It is

preceded by:
 Geologic investigations that locate the deposit and
 Economic analyses that prove it financially feasible.
 Following extraction of the fuel, industrial mineral, or metallic ore, the run-of-
mine material is generally cleaned or concentrated. This preparation or
beneficiation of the mineral into a higher-quality product is termed mineral
processing.
 The mineral products so produced may then undergo further concentration,
refinement, or fabrication during conversion, smelting, or refining to
provide consumer products.
 The end step in converting a mineral material into a useful product is
marketing.
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 Quite frequently, excavation in the earth is employed for purposes other than
mining. These include:
o Civil and military works in which the object is to produce a stable
opening of a desired size, orientation, and permanence.
o Examples are vehicular, water, and sewer tunnels, plus underground
storage facilities, waste disposal areas, and military installations.
o Many of these excavations are produced by means of standard mining
technology.

 Professionally, the fields of endeavor associated with the mineral industries

are linked to the phase or stage in which an activity occurs.
 Locating and exploring a mineral deposit fall in the general province of
geology and the earth sciences.
 Mining engineering, already defined, encompasses the proving (with
the geologist), planning, developing, and exploiting of a mineral
deposit.
 The mining engineer may also be involved with the closure and
reclamation of the mine property, although he or she may share those
duties with those in the environmental fields.
 The fields of processing, refining, and fabricating are assigned to
metallurgy, although there is often some overlap in the mineral
processing area with mining engineering.

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1-2 Stages in the life of a mine
The overall sequence of activities in modern mining is often compared with the
five stages in the life of a mine: prospecting, exploration, development,
exploitation, and reclamation.
 Prospecting and exploration, precursors to actual mining, are linked and
sometimes combined. Geologists and mining engineers often share
responsibility for these two stages—geologists more involved with the
former, mining engineers more with the latter.
 Likewise, development and exploitation are closely related stages; they
are usually considered to constitute mining proper and are the main
province of the mining engineer.
 Closure and reclamation of the mine site has become a necessary part of
the mine life cycle because of the demands of society for a cleaner
environment and stricter laws regulating the abandonment of a mine.
 The overall process of developing a mine with the future uses of the land
in mind is termed sustainable development.

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TABLE 1 Stages in the Life of a Mine
Stage/ Procedure Time
(Project Name)
Precursors to Mining
Prospecting Search for ore by: 1-3 yr
(Mineral deposit) a. Prospecting methods
Direct: physical geologic
Indirect: geophysical, geochemical
b. Locate favorable loci (maps, literature, old mines)
c. Air: aerial photography, airborne geophysics, satellite
d. Surface: ground geophysics, geology
e. Spot anomaly, analyze, evaluate

Exploration Defining extent and value of ore (examination/evaluation) 2-5 yr

(Ore body) a. Sample (drilling or excavation),assay, test
b. Estimate tonnage and grade
c. Valuate deposit: present value, income cost, Feasibility
study: make decision to abandon or develop
Mining Proper

Development Opening up ore deposit for production 2 — 5

(Prospect) a. Acquire mining rights (purchase or lease),if not done in
yr
stage 2
b. File environmental impact statement, technology
assessment, permit
c. Construct access roads, transport system
d. Locate surface plant, construct facilities
e. Excavate deposit (strip or sink shaft)

Exploitation Large-scale production of ore 10-30

(Mine) a. Factors in choice of method: geologic,geographic,
yr
economic, environmental, societal safety
b. Types of mining methods
Surface: open pit, open cast, etc.
Underground: room and pillar, block caving, etc.
c. Monitor costs and economic payback (3 — 10 yr)

Post-mining

Reclamation Restoration of site 1-10 yr

(Real estate) a. Removal of plant and buildings
b. Reclamation of waste and tailings dumps
c. Monitoring of discharges

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1-3 Prospecting
 Prospecting, the first stage in the utilization of a mineral deposit, is the
search for ores or other valuable minerals.
 Because mineral deposits may be located either at or below the surface of
the earth, both direct and indirect prospecting techniques are employed.
 The direct method of discovery, normally limited to surface deposits,
consists of visual examination of either;
o The exposure (outcrop) of the deposit.
or
o The loose fragments (float) that have weathered away from the
outcrop.
 By means of aerial photography, geologic maps, and structural assessment
of an area, the geologist gathers evidence by direct methods to locate
mineral deposits.
 Precise mapping and structural analysis plus microscopic studies of samples
also enable the geologist to locate the hidden as well as surface
mineralization.
 In the indirect search, the most valuable scientific tool employed for hidden
mineral deposits is geophysics, the science of 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; on the
surface of the earth; and beneath the earth, using methods that probe below
the topography.
 Geochemistry, the quantitative analysis of soil, rock, and water samples, can
also be employed as prospecting tools.

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1-4 Exploration
 The second stage in the life of a mine, determines as accurately as possible:
o The size and value of a mineral deposit
o Utilizing techniques similar to but more refined than those used in
prospecting.
 Exploration generally using a variety of measurements to obtain a more
positive picture of the extent and grade of the ore body.
 Representative samples may be subjected to evaluation techniques that
are meant to enhance the investigator’s knowledge of the mineral deposit
such as: chemical, metallurgical, X ray, spectrographic, or radiometric.
 Samples are obtained by: chipping outcrops, trenching, tunneling, and
drilling; in addition, borehole logs may be provided to study the geologic and
structural makeup of the deposit.
 Rotary, percussion, or diamond drills can be used for exploration purposes.
However, diamond drills are favored because the cores they yield provide
knowledge of the geologic structure.
 An evaluation of the samples enables the geologist or mining engineer to:
 Calculate the tonnage and grade, or richness, of the mineral deposit.
Estimates the mining costs,
 Evaluates the recovery of the valuable minerals,
 Determines the environmental costs,
 Assesses other foreseeable factors in an effort to reach a conclusion
about the profitability of the mineral deposit.
 For an ore deposit, the overall process is called reserve estimation, that is,
the examination and valuation of the ore body.
 At the conclusion of this stage, the project is developed, traded to another
party, or abandoned.