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Britannia Mining - Mining terms Category: Agriculture and Industry > Mining terms Date & country: 10/11/2016, UK Words: 280

Zone
An area of distinct mineralization.

Zone of oxidation
The upper portion of an orebody that has been oxidized.

Wrought iron
Malleable purified iron containing only a very small number of other elements, but containing slag, and more rust-resistant than steel.

Winder
Mechanism for winding ore from a shaft.

Wall rocks
Rock units on either side of an orebody. The hangingwall and footwall rocks of an orebody.

Water level
The level at which water was pumped out from a mine.

Waste
Barren rock or mineralized material that is too low in grade to be economically processed.

Volcanic rocks
Igneous rocks formed from magma that has flowed out or has been violently ejected from a volcano.

Uraninite
A uranium mineral with a high uranium oxide content. Frequently found in pegmatite dykes.

Uranium
A radioactive, silvery-white, metallic element.

Vein
Mineral body in a horizontal, vertical or angled position.

Vein
A fissure, fault or crack in a rock filled by minerals that have travelled upwards from some deep source.

Trend
The direction, in the horizontal plane, of a linear geological feature, such as an ore zone, measured from true north.

Trenching
A trench is invaluable in confirmining the bedrock source of an anomaly, be it geological, geochemical, or geophysical. Trenches and pits also provide large samples for more accurate grade estimates as well as for undertaking pilot processing plant test work to determine likely recoveries.

Top slicing
The process of mining iron ore out a horizontal level (slice), then allowing the ground above to collapse into the slice, and then mining out another slice at a lower level.

Tonnage
The quantity of ore making up an ore body, or the rate at which ore is extracted.

Tailings pond
A low-lying depression used to confine tailings from the mine operation, the prime function of which is to allow enough time for heavy metals to settle out or for cyanide to be destroyed before water is either recycled back into the mill operation or treated before discharge into the local watershed.

Talus
A heap of broken, coarse rock found at the base of a cliff or mountain.

Thermal processing
To confer to iron ore pellets high resistance metallurgic mechanics and appropriate characteristics, the pellets are subjected to thermal processing, which involves stages of drying, daily pay burn, burn, after-burn and cooling (in a cooling tower). The duration of each stage and the temperature that the pellets are subjected to have a strong influence on the final product quality.

Tailings
Material rejected from a mill after most of the recoverable valuable minerals have been extracted.

Taconite
A highly abrasive iron ore.

Tally stick
A wooden stick notched with the number of tubs got by a miner.

Tally
Metal disc attached to laden tubs to identify the miner’s output.

Tailings
Crushed or finely ground waste rock from which valuable minerals or metals have been extracted.

Sulphide
A compound of sulphur and some other element.

Sulphur
Element that occurs in a nature state or in compounds such as sulphides.

Steel
Steel is an alloy of iron usually containing less than 1% carbon which is used most frequently in the automotive and construction industries or is cast into bars, strips, sheets, nails, spikes, wire, rods or pipes as needed by the intended user.

Stope
Area of mine from which ore is or has been extracted.

Strip Ratio
The ratio of tons of overburden waste material to tons of ore in an open pit mine.

Staking
The measuring of an area of ground and marking with stakes or posts to establish and acquire mineral rights.

Stockpile
Broken ore heaped on surface, pending treatment or shipment.

Spoil
Waste rock and rubbish which is removed from the mine.

Sop
An area or mass of mineral.

Silica
Silicon dioxide. Quartz is a common example.

Siliceous
A rock containing an abundance of quartz.

Slag
Impurities in the iron ore that have been captured by limestone or other fluxes.

Slag
The vitreous mass separated from the fused metals in the smelting process.

Sinter
Pieces or granules of fused iron ore.

Sintering
Manufacturing process in which sinter is produced from fine raw iron ore, small coke, sand-sized limestone and numerous other steel plant waste materials that contain some iron. These fine materials are proportioned to obtain a desired product chemistry then mixed together. This raw material mix is then placed on a sintering strand, which is similar to a steel conveyor belt, where it is ignited by gas fired furnace and fused by the heat from the coke fines into larger size pieces that are from 0.5 to 2.0 inches.

Sedimentation
Formation of sediment. A sediment is a natural deposit created by the action of dynamic external agents such as water, wind, and ice.

Sedimentary rocks
Secondary rocks formed from material derived from other rocks and laid down under water. Examples are limestone, shale and sandstone.

Seismic prospecting
A geophysical method of prospecting, utilizing knowledge of the speed of reflected sound waves in rock.

Shaft
A vertical or inclined tunnel used for access, transportation, ventilation or water removal.

Showing
An indication of mineralization, the extent and economic value of which are unknown.

Scintillation counter
An instrument used to detect and measure radioactivity by detecting gamma rays; more sensitive than a geiger counter.

Secondary enrichment
Enrichment of a vein or mineral deposit by minerals that have been taken into solution from one part of the vein or adjacent rocks and redeposited in another.

Scaling
The act of removing loose slabs of rock from the back and walls of an underground opening, usually done with a hand-held scaling bar or with a boom-mounted scaling hammer.

Sampling
Selecting a fractional but representative part of a mineral deposit for analysis.

Scoping Study
The first level of engineering study that is performed on a mineral deposit to determine its economic viability. This is usually performed to determine whether the expense of a full pre-feasibility study and later full feasibility study is warranted. Scoping studies may be completed internally by the Company or by independent engineers.

Royalty
An area of land determined by the lease or a percentage payment demanded by the owner for the weight of mineral sold.

Rock
Any natural combination of minerals; part of the earth's crust.

Run-of-mine
A term used loosely to describe ore of average grade

Sample
A small portion of rock or a mineral deposit taken so that the metal content can be determined by assaying.

Reserve
(probable) Part of a resource for which economic viability has been demonstrated at a confidence level which would justify a commitment to major expenditures.

Reserve
(proven) Portion of a resource for which technical and economic factors have been established at a high confidence level. The term is generally restricted to that part of a reserve which is being developed or mined, or for which there is a detailed mining plan.

Resource
The calculated amount of material in a mineral deposit, based on limited drill information.

Reconnaissance
A preliminary survey of ground.

Recovery
The percentage of valuable metal in the ore that is recovered by metallurgical treatment.

Reserve
That part of a resource that can be mined at a profit under current or reasonably anticipated economic conditions which are specified. In addition to the information required for a resource estimate, the technical, operating, legal and financial factors must be considered in a reserve estimate.

Radioactivity
The property of spontaneously emitting alpha, beta or gamma rays by the decay of the nuclei of atoms.

Resource calculation
The mathematical or statistical process of calculating or estimating the amount of material in a mineral deposit, using drill hole information in combination with a variety of geological data. Resources are generally quoted in terms of tonnes of rock present which contain a specified grade of metal(s) e.g. 98-million tonnes at 43% iron.

Quartzite
A metamorphic rock formed by the transformation of a sandstone by heat and pressure.

Quartz
Common rock-forming mineral consisting of silicon and oxygen.

Qualified Person
A qualified person (QP) is defined in NI 43-101 as an individual who is an engineer or geoscientist with at least five years of experience in mineral exploration, mine development or operation or mineral project assessment, or any combination of these; has experience relevant to the subject matter of the mineral project and the technical report; and is a member in good standing of a professional association.

Quarry
Site where stone, rock and construction materials are extracted. Open-pit operation.

Qualified Person
(QP) A qualified person (QP) is defined in NI43-101 as an individual who is an engineer or geoscientist with at least five years of experience in mineral exploration, mine development or operation or mineral project assessment, or any combination of these; has experience relevant to the subject matter of the mineral project and the technical report; and is a member in good standing of a professional association. The QP must warrant the accuracy and completeness of a company’s technical reports and public disclosures such as press releases or presentations and retains professional responsibility for the contents of the report.

Pulp
Pulverized or ground ore in solution.

Pump rods
Reciprocating rods of heavy timber, conveying motion from a steam engine to the water pumps at the foot of a shaft.

Prospectus
A document filed with the appropriate securities commission detailing the activities and financial condition of a company seeking funds from the public through the issuance of shares.

Puddling
An early process used to convert pig iron to wrought iron.

Primary deposits
Valuable minerals deposited during the original period or periods of mineralization, as opposed to those deposited as a result of alteration or weathering.

Private placement
Sale of shares to individuals or corporations outside the normal market, at a negotiated price. Often used to raise capital for a junior exploration company.

Prospect
A mining property, the value of which has not been determined by exploration.

Proven reserve
Ore deposits whose tonnage, density and mineral or metal content are known in detail. This implies that sampling and drilling have been carried out in a regular grid located near mine workings. A proven reserve is that portion of an ore deposit for which technical and economic factors have been established at a high confidence level. The term is generally restricted to that part of a reserve which is being developed or mined, or for which there is a detailed mining plan.

Prospecting
In the broad sense, prospecting refers to exploration. In the strict sense, prospecting describes the search for surface mineralized showings (by prospectors).

Prospecting licence
A licence granted under this Act to conduct prospecting, general exploration and detailed exploration operations, and unless the context otherwise requires, the expression, ‘prospecting licence’ shall be deemed to include ‘a large area prospecting licence’.

Processing
Prospecting refers to exploration, operation consisting of extracting the economically valuable mineral or minerals from ore or tailings.

Probable reserve
Ore deposits whose continuity has been confirmed by samplings on a relatively detailed grid. The density of the grid allows for fairly precise determination of tonnage, density and mineral and metal content sufficient to prepare draft preliminary mining plans. It is that part of an ore deposit for which economic viability has been demonstrated at a confidence level which would justify a commitment to major expenditures. Developing a new mine is usually undertaken with probable and proven reserves.

Pre-feasibility study
A preliminary assessment of the Economic Viability of a deposit which forms the basis for justifying the completion of a more expensive Feasibility Study. A pre-feasibility study summarizes all geological, engineering, environmental, legal and economic information accumulated to date on the project. The Prefeasibility Study should have error limits of ± 25%.

Primary crushing
Process of reducing blasted ore into smaller fragments so that it can be transported to the processing plant. In underground mines, the primary crusher is often located underground, or at the entrance to the processing plant.

Pinnel
Fine glacial boulder clay.

Pit
General term for an iron ore working.

Pig iron
Crude iron from a blast furnace.

Pitchblende
An important uranium ore mineral. It is black in color, possesses a characteristic greasy lustre and is highly radioactive.

Placer
A deposit of sand and gravel containing valuable minerals such as gold, tin or diamonds.

Possible reserve
Ore deposits whose continuity has been determined from limited sampling information and reasonable extrapolation. It does not stand alone but is an extension of, or additional to, proven or probable reserves. Possible reserves are excellent targets for increasing a probable reserve and for extending the deposit over a larger and generally deeper area.

Pellet
A marble-sized ball of iron ore fused with clay for transportation and use in steelmaking.

Pentlandite
Nickel iron sulphide, the most common nickel ore.

Pig Iron
the intermediate product of smelting steel ore with coke and resin. Pig iron has a very high carbon content, typically 3.5 – 4.5%, which makes it very brittle and not useful directly as a material except for limited applications. Pig iron is typically poured directly out of the bottom of the blast furnace through a trough into a ladle car for transfer to the steel plant in liquid form, referred to as hot metal.

Pellet
A small, round, marble-sized ball of iron ore manufactured as feed for blast furnaces.

Pelletizing
The process by which iron ore is crushed, ground into a powder, rolled into balls and fired in a furnace to produce strong, marble-sized pellets that contain 60% to 65% iron. Raw iron ore pellets are generally manufactured within certain size categories and with mechanical properties high enough to maintain usefulness during the stresses of transference, transport, and use. Both mechanical force and thermal processes are used to produce the correct pellet properties.

Panning
Operation that consists of separating heavier minerals such as gold and sulphides from lighter metals in stream sediment, loose soil or crushed rock in a container shaped like a frying pan. In arid countries a similar operation, winnowing, can be performed without water.

Oxidation
A chemical reaction caused by exposure to oxygen that results in a change in the chemical composition of a mineral.

Overturned
Where the oldest sedimentary rock beds are lying on top of a younger beds.

Overburden
The alluvium and rock that must be removed in order to expose an ore deposit.

Ore Reserves
The calculated tonnage and grade of mineralization which can be extracted profitably; classified as possible, probable and proven according to the level of confidence that can be placed in the data.

Orebody
A natural concentration of valuable material that can be extracted and sold at a profit.

Outcrop
An exposure of bedrock. Outcrops can be formed naturally or by human action.

Outcrop
An exposure of rock or mineral deposit that can be seen on surface, that is, not covered by soil or water.

Orebody
A continuous, well-defined mass of material of sufficient ore content to make extraction economically feasible. The term orebody is used once the economic limits of the mineralized mass and its grade have been examined.