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Liberty Star - Minerals glossary Category: Agriculture and Industry > Minerals terms Date & country: 10/11/2016, USA Words: 619

Spot market
The buying and selling of uranium products for delivery within one year.

Solvent extraction-Electrowinning
see SX-EW

Spelter
The zinc of commerce, more or less impure, cast from molten metal into slabs or ingots.

Sphalerite
A zinc sulfide mineral; the most common ore mineral of zinc.

Split
The shareholder-approved division of a company’s outstanding common shares into a larger number of new common shares.

Spot contract
A one-time delivery of the entire contract to occur within one year of contract execution.

Slate
A metamorphic rock; the metamorphic equivalent of shale.

Slickenside
The striated, polished surface of a fault caused by one wall rubbing against the other.

Sludge
Rock cuttings from a diamond drill hole, sometimes used for assaying.

Sodium cyanide
A chemical used in the milling of gold ores to dissolve gold and silver.

Slash
The process of blasting rock from the side of an underground opening to widen the opening.

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

Skip
A self-dumping bucket used in a shaft for hoisting ore or rock.

Skarn
Name for the metamorphic rocks surrounding an igneous intrusive where it comes in contact with a limestone or dolostone formation.

Silica
Silicon dioxide. (Quartz is a common example.)

Siliceous
A rock containing an abundance of quartz.

Sill
An intrusive sheet of igneous rock of roughly uniform thickness that has been forced between the bedding planes of existing rock.

Silt
Muddy deposits of fine sediment usually found on the bottoms of lakes.

Sinter
Fine particles of iron ore that have been treated by heat to produce blast furnace feed.

Siderite
Iron carbonate, which when pure, contains 48.2% iron; must be roasted to drive off carbon dioxide before it can be used in a blast furnace. (Roasted product is called sinter.)

Shrinkage stoping
A mining method wherein the ore deposit is stoped from beneath, allowing broken ore to support the stope walls, but leaving a space above the broken ore just sufficient for the miners to stand on and drill overhead. Broken ore is drawn as necessary to maintain this headroom, and becasue the volume of rock expands upon breaking, about a third of the broken ore is drawn from beneath as stoping progresses from the bottom of the ore block to the top. After the stope is completed, all broken ore is removed and the walls are allowed to cave in. The wall rock must be strong enough to support itself during shrinkage stoping, without breaking away and becoming mixed with the broken ore. Steeply dipping veins with well-defined, hard walls are most suitable for shrinkage stoping.

Shear zone
A zone in which shearing has occurred on a large scale.

Shoot
A concentration of mineral values; that part of a vein or zone carrying values of ore grade.

Short selling
The borrowing of stock from a broker in order to sell it in the hope that it may be purchased at a lower price later on.

Short ton
2,000 lb avoirdupois.

Shear or shearing
The deformation of rocks by lateral movement along innumerable parallel planes, generally resulting from pressure and producing such metamorphic structures as cleavage and schistosity.

Shale
Sedimentary rock formed by the consolidation of mud or silt.

Serpentine
A greenish, metamorphic mineral consisting of magnesium silicate.

Sheave wheel
A large grooved wheel in the top of a headframe over which the hoisting rope passes.

Shaft
A vertical or inclined excavation in rock for the purpose of providing access to an orebody. Usually equipped with a hoist at the top, which lowers and raises a conveyance for handling workers and materials.

Separative Work Units
(SWU) The standard measure of enrichment services. The effort expended in separating a mass F of feed of assay xf into a mass P of product assay xp and waste of mass W and assay xw is expressed in terms of the number of separative work units needed, given by the expression SWU = WV(xw) + PV(xp)

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.

Self-potential
A technique, used in geophysical prospecting, which recognizes and measures the minute electric currents generated by sulfide deposits.

Semi-autogenous grinding
(SAG) A method of grinding rock into fine powder whereby the grinding media consist of larger chunks of rocks and steel balls.

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.

Scarp
An escarpment, cliff or steep slope along the margin of a plateau, mesa or terrace.

Schist
A foliated metamorphic rock the grains of which have a roughly parallel arrangement; generally developed by shearing.

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

Sand fill mining
see Hydraulic filling

Sandstone
A sedimentary rock consisting of grains of sand cemented together.

Sandstone Uranium Deposits
Sandstone uranium deposits are typically formed in continental clastic basins with complex, deformed stratigraphy and structure. They are a result of the chemical transport of uranium but the source and time of emplacement is typically not known. They can form as tabular or lens-shaped bodies, roll-fronts, or channels within the host rock. Permeability of the sandstone, and efficient dissolution and deposition mechanisms all influence the formation of deposits. Grades for this deposit type are typically 0.15 — 0.4% U308 and deposits are usually small to medium sized but numerous within an area. Sandstone uranium deposits are widely distributed around the world and produced more than 11 % of global production in 2004. Niger, Kazakhstan, USA, and Australia were some of the leading producers of uranium from sandstone deposits.

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

Salting
The act of introducing metals or minerals into a deposit or samples, resulting in false assays done either by accident or with the intent of defrauding the public.

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

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

Royalty
An amount of money paid at regular intervals by the lessee or operator of an exploration or mining property to the owner of the ground. Generally based on a certain amount per ton or a percentage of the total production or profits. Also, the fee paid for the right to use a patented process.

Rotary reverse circulation (RC) drilling
RC drilling is similar to air drilling, in that the drill cuttings are returned to surface inside the rods. The drilling mechanism can be a tricone bit but now more commonly is a pneumatic reciprocating piston known as a `hammer` driving a tungsten-steel drill bit. RC drilling utilizes much larger rigs and machinery and depths of up to 500 meters are routinely achieved. Ideally, produces dry-rock chips above the water table. Penetration below the water table is difficult because the heavy water is difficult for the air stream to lift and the hole generally `waters out` quickly. Then the drilling would have to proceed with a water-mud circulation which generally results in an inferior mineral sample.See Intro to RC drilling [Atlas Copco PDF]

Rotary drill
A machine that drills holes by rotating a rigid, tubular string of drill rods to which is attached a bit. Cuttings are flushed out of the bit, while cooling the bit, and brought to the surface by air or water-mud circulation. Commonly used for drilling large-diameter blast holes in open pit mines, as well oil well and water well drilling. For sampling mineral deposits, air circulation is preferably used above the water table. In rotary drilling, samples are chips and pulverized rock produced by the abrasive and chipping action of the drill bit.

Room-and-pillar mining
A type of open stoping wherein pillars are left in place in a regular pattern while the rooms are mined out. In many room and pillar mines, the pillars are taken out, starting at the farthest point from the mine haulage exit, retreating, and letting the roof come down upon the floor. Room and pillar mining is well adapted to mechanization, and is commonly used in flat or gently dipping bedded deposits such as coal, potash, phosphate, salt, oil, shale, and bedded uranium ores.

Rock mechanics
The study of the mechanical properties of rocks, which includes stress conditions around mine openings and the ability of rocks and underground structures to withstand these stresses.

Rockbolting
The act of supporting openings in rock with steel bolts anchored in holes drilled especially for this purpose.

Rockburst
A violent release of energy resulting in the sudden failure of walls or pillars in a mine, caused by the weight or pressure of the surrounding rocks.

Rod mill
A rotating steel cylinder that uses steel rods as a means of grinding ore.

Rock
Any natural combination of minerals; part of the Earth’s crust.

Rock factor
The number of cubic meters of a particular rock type required to make up one tonne of the material. One tonne of a highly siliceous ore may occupy 0.40 cubic meters, while a tonne of dense sulfide ore may occupy only 0.25 cubic meters.

RIP
Reconnaissance induced polarization. A subset of the IP methodology developed by Zonge Engineering and Research Organization Inc. of Tucson Arizona, whereby electrodes are laid out in a manner that IP response is measured over a large square or ovoid shape rather than along a line. The information gives indications or pinpoints mineralization within or over a broad area. It is generally followed up by dipole-dipole IP surveys along appropriate lines. The purpose as indicated by the name is to reconnoiter large areas at low cost.

Rhyolite
A fine-grained, extrusive igneous rock, which has the same chemical composition as granite.

Rib samples
Ore taken from rib pillars in a mine to determine metal content.

Rights
In finance, a certified right to purchase treasury shares in stated quantities, prices and time limits; usually negotiable at a price, which is related to the prices of the issue, represented; also referred to as warrants. Rights and warrants can be bought and sold prior to their expiry date because not all shareholders wish to exercise their rights.

Rill stoping
A variation of cut and fill stoping wherein the slices are inclined to the horizontal, so that ore moves down out of the stope, and waste slides down into the stope from above, with the need for hand shoveling or mechanical scraping.

Reverberatory furnace
A long, flat furnace used to slag gangue minerals and produce a matte.

Resurgent cauldron
A cauldron (caldera) in which the cauldron block, following subsidence, has been uplifted, usually in the form of a structural dome (Smith & Bailey, 1968, p. 613).

Resuing
A method of stoping in narrow-vein deposits whereby the wall rock on one side of the vein is blasted first and then the ore.

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

Resistivity survey
A geophysical technique used to measure the resistance of a rock formation to an electric current.

Replacement ore
Ore formed by a process during which certain minerals have passed into solution and have been carried away, while valuable minerals from the solution have been deposited in the place of those removed.

Regional metamorphism
Metamorphism caused by both the heat of igneous processes and tectonic pressure.

Regolith
A general term for the entire layer of mantle of fragmental and loose, incoherent, or unconsolidated rock material, of whatever origin (residual or transported and of very varied character, that nearly everywhere forms the surface of the land and overlies or covers the more coherent bedrock.

Refractory ore
Ore that resists the action of chemical reagents in the normal treatment processes and which may require pressure leaching or other means to affect the full recovery of the valuable minerals.

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

Reconnaissance induced polarization
see RIP

Record date
The date by which a shareholder must be registered on the books of a company in order to receive a declared dividend, or to vote on company affairs.

Reconnaissance
A preliminary survey of ground.

Rare earth elements
Relatively scarce minerals such as niobium and yttrium.

Reaming shell
A component of a string of rods used in diamond drilling, it is set with diamonds and placed between the bit and the core barrel to maintain the gauge (or diameter) of the hole.

Reclamation
The restoration of a site after mining or exploration activity is completed.

Rake
The trend of an orebody along the direction of its strike.

Raise
A vertical or inclined underground working that has been excavated from the bottom upward.

Radon survey
A geochemical survey technique, which detects traces of radon gas, a product of radioactivity.

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

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

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

Pyrrhotite
A bronze-colored, magnetic iron sulfide mineral.

Pyramiding
The use of increased buying power to increase ownership arising from price appreciation.

Pyrite
A yellow iron sulfide mineral, normally of little value. It is sometimes referred to as `fool’s gold`.

Pyroclastic
Pertaining to clastic rock material formed by volcanic explosion or aerial expulsion from a volcanic vent; also, pertaining to rock texture of explosive origin. It is not synonymous with the adjective `volcanic`.

Put
An option to sell a stock at an agreed upon price within a specified time. The owner can present his put to the contracting broker at any time within the option period and compel him to buy the stock.

Pulp
Pulverized or ground ore in solution.

Proxy
A power of attorney given by the shareholder so that his stock may be voted by his nominee(s) at shareholders’ meetings.

Proven reserves
Reserves that have been sampled extensively by closely spaced diamond drill holes and developed by underground workings in sufficient detail to render an accurate estimation of grade and tonnage. Also called `measured reserves.`

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

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

Proton precession magnetometer
A geophysical instrument, which measures magnetic field intensity in terms of vertical gradient and total field.

Profit and loss statement
The income statement of a company detailing revenues minus total costs to give total profit.

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.

Pro rata
In proportion (to ownership, income or contribution).

Probable reserves
Valuable mineralization not sampled enough to accurately estimate the terms of tonnage and grade. Also called `indicated reserves.`

Processing of uranium
Uranium-recovery operations at a mill, in-situ leach plant, byproduct plant, or other type of recovery operation.