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

Drill-indicated reserves
The size and quality of a potential orebody as suggested by widely spaced drillholes; more work is required before reserves can be classified as probable or proven.

Dyke
(vein) A long mass of eruptive rock, a dyke (vein) may consist of mineral deposits located between other rocks.

Drill
There are various types of drills for exploration such as a diamond drill (produces core) or reverse circulation drill (produces chips). Other types of drills are used in the mining process which do not produce a core, but are used to make circular holes in the rock which are filled with explosives.

Drilling
Piercing a hole in rock. In exploration, drilling allows for samples of the rock to be taken. In mining, it is used to insert explosives for blasting.

Diamond drill
A rotary type of rock drill that cuts a core of rock that is recovered in long cylindrical sections, two cm or more in diameter.

Disseminated ore
Ore carrying small particles of valuable minerals spread more or less uniformly through the host rock.

Downcast shaft
The shaft bringing fresh air into the mine.

Drift
A tunnel driven to gain access to the vein.

Direct-Reduced Iron
(DRI) Produced from the direct reduction of iron ore (in form of lumps, pellets or fines) by a reducing gas produced from natural gas or coal. Direct-reduced iron is richer in iron than pig iron, typically 90-94% total iron, as opposed to about 93% for molten pig iron, and an excellent feedstock for the electric furnaces used by mini mills, allowing them to use lower grades of scrap for the rest of the charge.

Diamond
The hardest known mineral, composed of pure carbon; low-quality diamonds are used to make bits for diamond drilling in rock.

Dilution
Mixing of ore grade material with non-ore grade waste material in the mining process. Dilution reduces the overall grade of the ore.

Development
Underground work carried out for the purpose of opening up a mineral deposit. Includes shaft sinking, crosscutting, drifting and raising, stripping/open pit mining.

Development drilling
drilling to establish accurate estimates of mineral reserves.

Diamond
The hardest and most brilliant of all precious gems. Drills are equipped with diamond tips in order to cut through hard rock.

Day level
A level driven directly from the surface.

Define a resource
Identification of the type of natural resource that exists in a region and may be used in the future (in contrast to actual resource).

Development
A phase of activity ranging from confirmation of a mineral deposit to the decision to build a mine. Development includes all geological, engineering and economic work necessary to ensure profitable mining and compliance with applicable laws.

Cyanidation
A method of extracting exposed gold or silver grains from crushed or ground ore by dissolving it in a weak cyanide solution. May be carried out in tanks inside a mill or in heaps of ore out of doors.

Cyanide
A chemical species containing carbon and nitrogen used to dissolve gold and silver from ore.

Cut-Off Grade
The grade or concentration of metallic minerals below which the material is considered to be uneconomical to mine and process. A cut-off grade of 20% Fe implies that any material containing less than 20% iron will be uneconomical to mine. If the average mine grade drops below the cut off grade, the mine will operate at a loss.

Cupola Furnace
Cupola furnaces are tall, cylindrical furnaces used to melt iron and ferro alloys in foundry operations. Alternating layers of metal and ferro alloys, coke, and limestone are fed into the furnace from the top.

Cross-cut
Drift in an underground mine that provides access to an orebody.

Crown or Surface Pillar
A body of rock of variable geometry, which may or may not contain minerals. Located above the underground operations, it supports the surface above stopes.

Crushing
The process of breaking up large rocks into smaller rocks, gravel or rock dust. Crushing is an essential part of the mining, reducing run-of-mine ore to a size that can be easily transported or processed.

Country rock
Loosely used to describe the general mass of rock adjacent to an orebody. Also known as the host rock.

Complex ore
An ore containing a number of minerals of economic value. The term often implies that there are metallurgical difficulties in liberating and separating the valuable metals.

Concentrate
A fine, powdery product of the milling process containing a high percentage of valuable metal.

Core
The long cylindrical piece of rock, about an inch in diameter, brought to surface by diamond drilling.

Concentrate
Substance of value produced by physical and/or chemical processing of ore. The separation of economically valuable minerals from the gangue.

Concentrator
A process where iron ore is upgraded to a higher iron content.

Core sample
Cylindrical sample of rock taken from the ground by drilling for research and exploration purposes.

Competent Persons Report
Any Public Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources or Ore Reserves must be signed off by a Competent Person in accordance with the Joint Ore Reserves Committee(JORC) Code. A Competent Person must be a Member or Fellow of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, or of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists, or of a ‘Recognised Overseas Professional Organisation’ (the 2004 Edition) or ‘Recognised Professional Organisation’ (2012 Edition). A Competent Person must have a minimum of five years’ experience working with the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration and relevant to the activity which that person is undertaking.

Company
A group of four or five miners working together.

Clay
A fine-grained material composed of hydrous aluminum silicates.

Coke
Coke is a solid carbon fuel and carbon source used to melt and reduce iron ore.

Cokemaking
The processes used to make coke. The process begins with pulverized, bituminous coal. The coal is fed into a coke oven which is sealed and heated to very high temperatures for 14 to 36 hours. After completion, the coke is moved to quenching towers and stored until it is needed.

Claim
A portion of land held either by a prospector or a mining company. In Canada, the common size is 1,320 ft. (about 400 m) square, or 40 acres (about 16 ha).

Claim
Mining right that grants holder the exclusive right to search, within a given territory, for any mineral substance. May exclude peat, sand, clay, gravel, hydrocarbons, brine and stone used for industrial purposes.

Chalcocite
A sulphide mineral of copper common in the zone of secondary enrichment.

Chalcopyrite
A sulphide mineral of copper and iron; the most important ore mineral of copper.

Chip sample
A method of sampling a rock exposure whereby a regular series of small chips of rock is broken off along a line across the face.

Chromite
The chief ore mineral of chromium.

Captain
The person in charge of a mine and underground workings.

Cast iron
An alloy of iron containing so much carbon (2% to 6%) that it becomes too brittle to be wrought, and it must be shaped by casting in a mould while molten.

Capitalization
A financial term used to describe the value financial markets put on a company. Determined by multiplying the number of outstanding shares of a company by the current stock price.

Cesium magnetometer
An geophysical instrument which measures magnetic field strength in terms of vertical gradient and total field.

Byproduct
A secondary metal or mineral product recovered in the milling process.

Bullion
Metal formed into bars or ingots.

Bulk sampling
Removing mineral substances in substantial quantities (over 50 tonnes) in order to do mineral processing tests.

Bulk sample
A large sample of mineralized rock, frequently hundreds of tonnes, selected in such a manner as to be representative of the potential orebody being sampled. Used to determine metallurgical characteristics.

Bull market
Term used to describe financial market conditions when share prices are going up.

Blasting
Technique to break ore in an underground or open-pit mine.

Bloomery
An early hearth for smelting haematite to produce iron.

Bogie
Clutch vehicle used for transporting ore and waste.

Bulk mining
A method of mining in which large quantities of low-grade ore are mined without attempt to segregate the high-grade portions.

Bulk sample
A large sample of mineralized rock, frequently hundreds of tonnes, selected in such a manner as to be representative of the potential orebody being sampled. Used to determine metallurgical characteristics on an industrial scale.

Bear market
Term used to describe market conditions when share prices are declining.

Bedding
The arrangement of sedimentary rocks in layers.

Bituminous coal
A mineral coal that contains volatile hydrocarbons and tarry matter and burns with a yellow, smoky flame; soft coal.

Biotite
A platy magnesium-iron mica, common in igneous rocks.

Blast Furnace
A shaft furnace in which solid fuel (coke) is burned with an air blast to smelt ore in a continuous operation.

Bessemer process
Process of rendering cast iron malleable by the introduction of air into the fluid metal to remove carbon. This was the first process for mass-producing steel inexpensively.

Beneficiate
Process (ores or other raw materials), as by reduction

Bedrock
Solid rock present beneath any soil, sediment or other surface cover.

Assessment work
The amount of work, specified by mining law, that must be performed each year in order to retain legal control of mining claims.

Bank
A flat area outside the level entrance.

Barren Rock
Rock that does not contain minerals in quantities sufficient to allow for economically profitable mining.

Base metal
Any non-precious metal (eg. copper, lead, zinc, nickel, etc.).

Basement rocks
The underlying or older rock mass. Often refers to rocks of Precambrian age which may be covered by younger rocks.

Assay
A chemical test performed on a rock sample to determine the amount –or grade- of valuable metal contained.

Assay
A chemical test performed on a sample of ores or minerals to determine the amount of valuable metals contained.

Assay map
Plan view of an area indicating assay values and locations of all samples taken on the property.

Artisanal miners
Or small-scale miner is, in effect, a subsistence miner. They are not officially employed by a mining company, but rather work independently, mining or panning for gold using their own resources.

Apatite
Apatite is a group of phosphate minerals, usually referring to hydroxylapatite, fluorapatite and chlorapatite, named for high concentrations of OH-, F- and Cl- ions, respectively, in the crystal.

Anomaly
Any departure from the norm which may indicate the presence of mineralization in the underlying bedrock

Alloy
A metal mixed with other elements, such as carbon, nickel or copper, to change its properties, e.g. to improve resistance to corrosion.

Alloy
A compound of two or more metals.

Alluvium
Relatively recent deposits of sedimentary material laid down in river beds, flood plains, lakes, or at the base of mountain slopes. (adj. alluvial)

Airborne survey
A survey made from an aircraft to obtain photographs, or measure magnetic properties, radioactivity, etc.

Aerial surveying
Aerial survey is a geomatics method of collecting information by using aerial photography, LiDAR or from remote sensing imagery using other bands of the electromagnetic spectrum, such as infrared, gamma, or ultraviolet. It can also refer to the chart or map made by analysing a region from the air.