Vocab
Rock containing enough mineral to be profitably mined. Comprised of two parts; the mineral and the waste mineral material.
What is ore?
Creating a large hole with terraces in the ground to reach shallow mineral deposits.
What is open-pit/opencast mining?
Melting ore to separate the useful metal from other elements.
What is smelting?
Soil and rock covering a mineral deposit that must be removed.
What is overburden?
Overburden is removed in narrow strips following outcrops on hilly terrain.
What is contour strip mining?
Purifying raw, smelted metal (e.g., copper, gold, lead) into high-purity, commercial-grade products by removing impurities.
What is refining?
Waste materials produced from mining.
What is tailings/spoils?
Using explosives, massive shovels, and heavy machinery called draglines to remove rock and expose coal seams under a mountain.
What is mountaintop removal?
Ore-refining method using heat (used for iron, copper, and lead).
What is pyrometallurgy?
Commercially worthless material surrounding a desired mineral.
What is gangue?
Overburden is removed in rectangular strips on flat terrain.
What is area strip mining?
A liquid mixture of waste products created during the smelting process.
What is slag?
The known amount of a resource left that can be mined usually measured in years left of extraction.
What is reserve?
Machines scoop or suck up materials like sand, gravel, or minerals from the bottoms of rivers, lakes, or oceans.
What is dredging?
Ore-refining process using chemicals (used for gold, copper, and zinc).
What is hydrometallurgy?