Outline of mining
Encyclopedia
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to mining:

Mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

– extraction of valuable
Value (economics)
An economic value is the worth of a good or service as determined by the market.The economic value of a good or service has puzzled economists since the beginning of the discipline. First, economists tried to estimate the value of a good to an individual alone, and extend that definition to goods...

 mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...

s or other geological
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

 materials from the earth, usually (but not always) from an ore
Ore
An ore is a type of rock that contains minerals with important elements including metals. The ores are extracted through mining; these are then refined to extract the valuable element....

 body, vein
Vein (geology)
In geology, a vein is a distinct sheetlike body of crystallized minerals within a rock. Veins form when mineral constituents carried by an aqueous solution within the rock mass are deposited through precipitation...

 or (coal) seam. Any material that cannot be grown from agricultural
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 processes, or created artificially
Chemical synthesis
In chemistry, chemical synthesis is purposeful execution of chemical reactions to get a product, or several products. This happens by physical and chemical manipulations usually involving one or more reactions...

 in a laboratory
Laboratory
A laboratory is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. The title of laboratory is also used for certain other facilities where the processes or equipment used are similar to those in scientific laboratories...

 or factory
Factory
A factory or manufacturing plant is an industrial building where laborers manufacture goods or supervise machines processing one product into another. Most modern factories have large warehouses or warehouse-like facilities that contain heavy equipment used for assembly line production...

, is usually mined.

Essence of mining

Main article: Mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

  • Extractive metallurgy
    Extractive metallurgy
    Extractive metallurgy is the study of the processes used in the separation and concentration of raw materials. The field is an applied science, covering all aspects of the physical and chemical processes used to produce mineral-containing and metallic materials, sometimes for direct use as a...

  • Mineral exploration
    Mineral exploration
    Mineral exploration is the process of finding ore to mine. Mineral exploration is a much more intensive, organized and professional form of mineral prospecting and, though it frequently uses the services of prospecting, the process of mineral exploration on the whole is much more involved.-Stages...

  • Mining engineering
    Mining engineering
    Mining engineering is an engineering discipline that involves the practice, the theory, the science, the technology, and application of extracting and processing minerals from a naturally occurring environment. Mining engineering also includes processing minerals for additional value.Mineral...

  • Ore
    Ore
    An ore is a type of rock that contains minerals with important elements including metals. The ores are extracted through mining; these are then refined to extract the valuable element....

  • Ore dressing
  • Ore genesis
    Ore genesis
    The various theories of ore genesis explain how the various types of mineral deposits form within the Earth's crust. Ore genesis theories are very dependent on the mineral or commodity....

  • Overburden
    Overburden
    Overburden is the material that lies above an area of economic or scientific interest in mining and archaeology; most commonly the rock, soil, and ecosystem that lies above a coal seam or ore body. It is also known as 'waste' or 'spoil'...

  • Prospecting
    Prospecting
    Prospecting is the physical search for minerals, fossils, precious metals or mineral specimens, and is also known as fossicking.Prospecting is a small-scale form of mineral exploration which is an organised, large scale effort undertaken by mineral resource companies to find commercially viable ore...

  • Tailings
    Tailings
    Tailings, also called mine dumps, slimes, tails, leach residue, or slickens, are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction of an ore...

  • Resource extraction
    Resource extraction
    The related terms natural resource extraction both refer to the practice of locating, acquiring and selling natural resources....

  • Vein (geology)
    Vein (geology)
    In geology, a vein is a distinct sheetlike body of crystallized minerals within a rock. Veins form when mineral constituents carried by an aqueous solution within the rock mass are deposited through precipitation...


Mining techniques

  • Alpha Hydraulic Diggings
    Alpha Hydraulic Diggings
    The Alpha Hydraulic Diggings are located one mile north of what was the town of Alpha during the California Gold Rush in 1850, but the site is now near the unincorporated town of Washington, California. The diggings became a registered California Historical Landmark on 1958-01-29...

  • Borehole mining
    Borehole mining
    Borehole Mining is a remote operated method of extracting mineral resources through boreholes by means of high pressure water jets...

  • Box cut
    Box cut
    A box cut is a small open cut created to provide a secure and safe portal as access to a decline to an underground mine. Generally the box cut is sunk until sufficiently unweathered rock is found to permit the development of the decline....

  • Deepsea mining
    Deepsea mining
    Deep sea mining is a relatively new mineral retrieval process that takes place on the ocean floor. Ocean mining sites are usually around large areas of polymetallic nodules or active and extinct hydrothermal vents at about 1,400 - 3,700 meters below the ocean’s surface...

  • Dredging
  • Drift mining
    Drift mining
    Drift mining is either the mining of a placer deposit by underground methods, or the working of coal seams accessed by adits driven into the surface outcrop of the coal bed. Drift is a more general mining term, meaning a near-horizontal passageway in a mine, following the bed or vein of ore. A...

  • Fire-setting
    Fire-setting
    Fire-setting is a method of mining used since prehistoric times up to the Middle Ages. Fires were set against a rock face to heat the stone, which was then doused with water...

  • Glory hole (petroleum production)
    Glory hole (petroleum production)
    A glory hole in the context of the offshore petroleum industry is an excavation into the sea floor designed to protect the wellhead equipment installed at the surface of a petroleum well from icebergs or pack ice. An economically attractive alternative for exploiting offshore petroleum resources...

  • Heap leaching
    Heap leaching
    Heap leaching is an industrial mining process to extract precious metals, copper, uranium, and other compounds from ore.The process has ancient origins; one of the classical methods for the manufacture of copperas was to heap up iron pyrite and collect the leachate from the heap, which was then...

  • Hydraulic mining
    Hydraulic mining
    Hydraulic mining, or hydraulicking, is a form of mining that uses high-pressure jets of water to dislodge rock material or move sediment. In the placer mining of gold or tin, the resulting water-sediment slurry is directed through sluice boxes to remove the gold.-Precursor - ground...

  • In-situ leach
    In-situ leach
    In-situ leaching , also called in-situ recovery or solution mining, is a mining process used to recover minerals such as copper and uranium through boreholes drilled into a deposit, in situ....

  • Landfill mining
    Landfill mining
    Landfill mining and reclamation is a process whereby solid wasteswhich have previously been landfilled are excavated and processed. The function of landfill mining is to reduce the amount of landfill mass encapsulated within the closed landfill and/or temporarily remove hazardous material to allow...

  • Longwall mining
    Longwall mining
    Longwall mining is a form of underground coal mining where a long wall of coal is mined in a single slice . The longwall panel is typically 3–4 km long and 250–400 m wide....

  • Mine reclamation
    Mine reclamation
    Mine reclamation is the process of creating useful landscapes that meet a variety of goals, typically creating productive ecosystems from mined land...

  • Mountaintop removal mining
  • Omega Hydraulic Diggings
    Omega Hydraulic Diggings
    The Omega Hydraulic Diggings are located one mile north of what was the town of Omega, California during the California Gold Rush. The site is southeast of the unincorporated town of Washington, California...

  • Open-pit mining
    Open-pit mining
    Open-pit mining or opencast mining refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow....

  • Placer mining
    Placer mining
    Placer mining is the mining of alluvial deposits for minerals. This may be done by open-pit or by various surface excavating equipment or tunneling equipment....

  • Quarry
    Quarry
    A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...

    ing
  • Quartz reef mining
    Quartz reef mining
    Primary gold typically occurs in quartz veins. The extraction of gold ore from these hard quartz veins was historically referred to as quartz reef mining....

  • Retreat mining
    Retreat mining
    Retreat mining is a term used to reference the final phase of an underground mining technique known as room and pillar mining. This involves excavating a room or chamber while leaving behind pillars of material for support. This excavation is carried out in a pattern advancing away from the...

  • Room and pillar
    Room and pillar
    Room and pillar is a mining system in which the mined material is extracted across a horizontal plane while leaving "pillars" of untouched material to support the roof overburden leaving open areas or "rooms" underground...

  • Shaft mining
    Shaft mining
    Shaft mining or shaft sinking refers to the method of excavating a vertical or near-vertical tunnel from the top down, where there is initially no access to the bottom....

  • Slope mining
    Slope mining
    Slope mining is a method of accessing valuable geological material, such as coal. A sloping access shaft travels downwards towards the coal seam. Slope mines differ from shaft and drift mines, which access resources by tunneling straight down or horizontally, respectively.In slope mining, an angled...

  • Stoping
    Stoping (mining method)
    Stoping is the removal of the wanted ore from an underground mine leaving behind an open space known as a stope. Stoping is used when the country rock is sufficiently strong not to cave into the stope, although in most cases artificial support is also provided...

  • Strip mining
  • Sulfide mining
    Sulfide mining
    Sulfide mining a colloquial term used in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota to describe the act of mining of ore which contains significant quantities of sulfide minerals....

  • Underground mining (hard rock)
  • Winding tower

Materials mined

Some examples of materials that are extracted from the earth by mining include:
  • Bauxite
    Bauxite
    Bauxite is an aluminium ore and is the main source of aluminium. This form of rock consists mostly of the minerals gibbsite Al3, boehmite γ-AlO, and diaspore α-AlO, in a mixture with the two iron oxides goethite and hematite, the clay mineral kaolinite, and small amounts of anatase TiO2...

  • Chromite
    Chromite
    Chromite is an iron chromium oxide: FeCr2O4. It is an oxide mineral belonging to the spinel group. Magnesium can substitute for iron in variable amounts as it forms a solid solution with magnesiochromite ; substitution of aluminium occurs leading to hercynite .-Occurrence:Chromite is found in...

  • Coal
    Coal
    Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

  • Copper
    Copper
    Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

  • Diamond
    Diamond
    In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...

    s
  • Iron
    Iron
    Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

  • Lead
    Lead
    Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...

  • Limestone
    Limestone
    Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

  • Magnesite
    Magnesite
    Magnesite is magnesium carbonate, MgCO3. Iron substitutes for magnesium with a complete solution series with siderite, FeCO3. Calcium, manganese, cobalt, and nickel may also occur in small amounts...

  • Marble
    Marble
    Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...

  • Molybdenum
    Molybdenum
    Molybdenum , is a Group 6 chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42. The name is from Neo-Latin Molybdaenum, from Ancient Greek , meaning lead, itself proposed as a loanword from Anatolian Luvian and Lydian languages, since its ores were confused with lead ores...

  • Nickel
    Nickel
    Nickel is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel belongs to the transition metals and is hard and ductile...

     - see Nickel extraction and purification
  • Phosphate
    Phosphate
    A phosphate, an inorganic chemical, is a salt of phosphoric acid. In organic chemistry, a phosphate, or organophosphate, is an ester of phosphoric acid. Organic phosphates are important in biochemistry and biogeochemistry or ecology. Inorganic phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus for use in...

  • Precious metal
    Precious metal
    A precious metal is a rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical element of high economic value.Chemically, the precious metals are less reactive than most elements, have high lustre, are softer or more ductile, and have higher melting points than other metals...

    s
    • Gold
      Gold
      Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

       - see Gold mining
      Gold mining
      Gold mining is the removal of gold from the ground. There are several techniques and processes by which gold may be extracted from the earth.-History:...

    • Silver
      Silver
      Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

       - see Silver mining
      Silver mining
      Silver mining refers to the resource extraction of the precious metal element silver by mining.-History:Silver has been known since ancient times. It is mentioned in the Book of Genesis, and slag heaps found in Asia Minor and on the islands of the Aegean Sea indicate that silver was being separated...

  • Oil shale
    Oil shale
    Oil shale, an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock, contains significant amounts of kerogen from which liquid hydrocarbons called shale oil can be produced...

     - see Oil shale industry
    Oil shale industry
    Oil shale industry is an industry of mining and processing of oil shale—a fine-grained sedimentary rock, containing significant amounts of kerogen , from which liquid hydrocarbons can be manufactured. The industry has developed in Brazil, China, Estonia and to some extent in Germany, Israel and...

     and Shale oil extraction
  • Sand
    Sand
    Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...

     - see Sand mining
    Sand mining
    Sand mining is a practice that is becoming an environmental issue as the demand for sand increases in industry and construction. Sand is mined from beaches and inland dunes and dredged from ocean beds and river beds. It is often used in manufacturing as an abrasive, for example, and it is used to...

  • Slate
    Slate
    Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...

     - see Slate industry
    Slate industry
    The slate industry is the industry related to the extraction and processing of slate. Slate is either quarried from a slate quarry or reached by tunneling in a slate mine. Common uses for slate include as a roofing material, a flooring material, gravestones and memorial tablets, and for electrical...

  • Rock salt
    Sodium chloride
    Sodium chloride, also known as salt, common salt, table salt or halite, is an inorganic compound with the formula NaCl. Sodium chloride is the salt most responsible for the salinity of the ocean and of the extracellular fluid of many multicellular organisms...

  • Tin
    Tin
    Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...

  • Uranium
    Uranium
    Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...


Mining equipment

  • Archimedes' screw
    Archimedes' screw
    The Archimedes' screw, also called the Archimedean screw or screwpump, is a machine historically used for transferring water from a low-lying body of water into irrigation ditches...

  • Air classifier
    Air classifier
    An air classifier is an industrial machine which sorts materials by a combination of size, shape, and density. It works by injecting the material stream to be sorted into a chamber which contains a column of rising air...

  • Beam engine
    Beam engine
    A beam engine is a type of steam engine where a pivoted overhead beam is used to apply the force from a vertical piston to a vertical connecting rod. This configuration, with the engine directly driving a pump, was first used by Thomas Newcomen around 1705 to remove water from mines in Cornwall...

  • Bucket-wheel excavator
    Bucket-wheel excavator
    Bucket-wheel excavators are heavy equipment used in surface mining and mechanical engineering/civil engineering. The primary function of BWEs is to act as a continuous digging machine in large-scale open pit mining operations...

  • Dragline
  • Dredge
    Dredge
    Dredging is an excavation activity or operation usually carried out at least partly underwater, in shallow seas or fresh water areas with the purpose of gathering up bottom sediments and disposing of them at a different location...

  • Drilling rig
    Drilling rig
    A drilling rig is a machine which creates holes or shafts in the ground. Drilling rigs can be massive structures housing equipment used to drill water wells, oil wells, or natural gas extraction wells, or they can be small enough to be moved manually by one person...

  • Miner's canary
  • Excavator
    Excavator
    Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, stick, bucket and cab on a rotating platform . The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. A cable-operated excavator uses winches and steel ropes to accomplish the movements. They are a natural progression from the...

  • Loader (equipment)
    Loader (equipment)
    A loader is a heavy equipment machine often used in construction, primarily used to load material into or onto another type of machinery .-Heavy equipment front loaders:A loader A loader is a heavy equipment machine often used in construction, primarily used to load material (such as asphalt,...

  • Man engine
    Man engine
    A man engine is a mechanism of reciprocating ladders and stationary platforms installed in mines to assist the miners’ journeys to and from the working levels...

  • Movement and Surveying Radar
    Movement and Surveying Radar
    In open pit mining operations, people and equipment are constantly at the base of a steep, man-made slope . Instances where this slope fails resulting in a rock or earthfall can result in loss of life, injuries and damage or destruction of equipment...

  • Power shovel - also see Steam shovel
    Steam shovel
    A steam shovel is a large steam-powered excavating machine designed for lifting and moving material such as rock and soil. It is the earliest type of power shovel or excavator. They played a major role in public works in the 19th and early 20th century, being key to the construction of railroads...

  • Pumpjack
    Pumpjack
    A pumpjack is the overground drive for a reciprocating piston pump in an oil well....

  • Safety lamp
    Safety lamp
    A safety lamp is any of several types of lamp, which are designed to be safe to use in coal mines. These lamps are designed to operate in air that may contain coal dust, methane, or firedamp, all of which are potentially flammable or explosive...

  • Subsea
    Subsea
    Subsea is a general term frequently used to refer to equipment, technology, and methods employed in marine biology, undersea geology, offshore oil and gas developments, underwater mining, and offshore wind power industries.- Oil and gas :...

  • Trommel
    Trommel
    A trommel is a screened cylinder used to separate materials by size - for example, separating the biodegradable fraction of mixed municipal waste or separating different sizes of crushed stone....

  • Wellhead
    Wellhead
    A wellhead is a general term used to describe the component at the surface of an oil or gas well that provides the structural and pressure-containing interface for the drilling and production equipment....

  • Wheel tractor-scraper
    Wheel tractor-scraper
    In civil engineering, a wheel tractor-scraper is a piece of heavy equipment used for earthmoving.The rear part has a vertically moveable hopper with a sharp horizontal front edge. The hopper can be hydraulically lowered and raised. When the hopper is lowered, the front edge cuts into the soil or...

  • Winding engine
    Winding engine
    A winding engine is a stationary engine used to control a cable, for example to power a mining hoist at a pit head. Electric hoist controllers have replaced proper winding engines in modern mining, but use electric motors that are also traditionally referred to as winding engines.Most proper...


Mining hazards and safety

  • Acid mine drainage
    Acid mine drainage
    Acid mine drainage , or acid rock drainage , refers to the outflow of acidic water from metal mines or coal mines. However, other areas where the earth has been disturbed may also contribute acid rock drainage to the environment...

  • Bootleg mining
    Bootleg mining
    SpanBootleg mining is illegal coal mining.The term originated around the 1920s, though the practice probably predates that. Generally, a bootleg mine is a small mine dug by a handful of men. Often this took place surrepetitiously on land owned by somebody else, such as a coal company...

  • Claustrophobia
    Claustrophobia
    Claustrophobia is the fear of having no escape and being closed in small spaces or rooms...


  • Coal mining debate
  • Damp (mining)
    Damp (mining)
    Historically, gases in coal mines in Britain were collectively known as "damps". This comes from the Middle Low German word dampf , and was in use by 1480 .Damps included:...

    • After damp
    • Black damp
    • Fire damp
    • Stink damp
    • White damp
  • Energy law
    Energy law
    Energy laws govern the use and taxation of energy, both renewable and non-renewable. These laws are the primary authorities related to energy...

  • Mine disaster
  • Mine exploration
    Mine exploration
    Mine exploration is a hobby in which people visit abandoned mines, quarries, and sometimes operational mines. Enthusiasts usually engage in such activities for the purpose of exploration and documentation, sometimes through the use of surveying and photography. In this respect, mine exploration...

  • Mine fire
    Mine fire
    A coal seam fire or mine fire is the underground smouldering of a coal deposit, often in a coal mine. Such fires have economic, social and ecological impacts...

  • Mine rescue
    Mine rescue
    Mine rescue is the very specialized job of rescuing miners and others who have become trapped or injured underground in mines because of mining accidents and disasters such as explosions caused by firedamp, roof falls or floods.- Expert volunteers :...

  • Mining accident
    Mining accident
    A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals.Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially in the processes of coal mining and hard rock mining...

  • Mining induced subsidence

History of mining

Main article: History of mining

  • Cornish stamps
  • Davy lamp
    Davy lamp
    The Davy lamp is a safety lamp with a wick and oil vessel burning originally a heavy vegetable oil, devised in 1815 by Sir Humphry Davy. It was created for use in coal mines, allowing deep seams to be mined despite the presence of methane and other flammable gases, called firedamp or minedamp.Sir...

  • De re metallica
    De re metallica
    De re metallica is a book cataloguing the state of the art of mining, refining, and smelting metals, published in 1556. The author was Georg Bauer, whose pen name was the Latinized Georgius Agricola...

  • Fire-setting
    Fire-setting
    Fire-setting is a method of mining used since prehistoric times up to the Middle Ages. Fires were set against a rock face to heat the stone, which was then doused with water...

  • Freeminer
    Freeminer
    Freeminer is an ancient title given to a coal or iron miners in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England, who have earned the right to mine personal plots, known as gales.-History of Freemining:...

  • Geordie lamp
    Geordie lamp
    The Geordie lamp was invented by George Stephenson in 1815 as a solution to explosions due to firedamp in coal mines.Although controversy arose between Stephenson's design and the Davy lamp, , Stephenson's original design worked on significantly different principles...

  • Gold rush
    Gold rush
    A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...

  • History of coal mining
    History of coal mining
    Due to its abundance, coal has been mined in various parts of the world throughout history and continues to be an important economic activity today. Compared to wood fuels, coal yields a higher amount of energy per mass and could be obtained in areas where wood is not readily available...

  • Hurrying
    Hurrying
    A hurrier, also sometimes called a coal drawer or coal thruster, was a child or woman employed by a collier to transport the coal that they had mined. Women would normally get the children to help them because of the difficulty of carrying the coal...

  • Hushing
    Hushing
    Hushing is an ancient and historic mining method using a flood or torrent of water to reveal mineral veins. The method was applied in several ways, both in prospecting for ores, and for their exploitation. Mineral veins are often hidden below soil and sub-soil, which must be stripped away to...

  • Mining innovations during the Industrial Revolution
  • School of mines
    School of Mines
    A school of mines is a term used for many engineering schools established in the 18th and 19th centuries that originally focused on mining engineering and applied science...


Mining, by country


Other mining terms and topics

  • Biomining
    Biomining
    Biomining is a new approach to the extraction of desired minerals from ores being explored by the mining industry in the past few years. Microorganisms are used to leach out the minerals, rather than the traditional methods of extreme heat or toxic chemicals, which have a deleterious effect on the...

  • Deformation monitoring
    Deformation monitoring
    Deformation monitoring is the systematic measurement and tracking of the alteration in the shape or dimensions of an object as a result of stresses induced by applied loads...

  • Manto ore deposits
    Manto ore deposits
    Manto orebodies are stratabound irregular to rod shaped ore occurrences usually horizontal or near horizontal in attitude.Manto deposits are an important source of copper, forming one of the world major copper resources in Chile and southern North America....

  • Mineral
    Mineral
    A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...

  • National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
    National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
    The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is the United States’ federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related injury and illness. NIOSH is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention within the U.S...

  • National Mining Hall of Fame
    National Mining Hall of Fame
    The National Mining Hall of Fame is a museum located in Leadville, Colorado, USA, dedicated to commemorating the work of miners and people that work with natural resources...

  • Ore grade

Mining scholars

  • Georg Agricola
    Georg Agricola
    Georgius Agricola was a German scholar and scientist. Known as "the father of mineralogy", he was born at Glauchau in Saxony. His real name was Georg Pawer; Agricola is the Latinised version of his name, Pawer meaning "farmer"...

     - author of De re metallica
    De re metallica
    De re metallica is a book cataloguing the state of the art of mining, refining, and smelting metals, published in 1556. The author was Georg Bauer, whose pen name was the Latinized Georgius Agricola...

  • Harrison Schmitt
    Harrison Schmitt
    Harrison Hagan "Jack" Schmitt is an American geologist, a retired NASA astronaut, university professor, and a former U.S. senator from New Mexico....

     - American geologist, astronaut, retired senator
  • Paul Worsey
    Paul Worsey
    Paul N. Worsey is a tenured professor and well known mining and explosives expert and researcher at the Missouri University of Science and Technology . Outside of teaching, research, and writing in his field, he is noted for creating and hosting the University's annual "Explosives Camp" for 16 and...

  • Richard Redmayne
    Richard Redmayne
    Richard Augustine Studdert Redmayne KCB, MICE, MIMM, MIME, FGS was a British civil and mining engineer. Redmayne worked a manager of several mines in Britain and South Africa before becoming a professor at the University of Birmingham...

  • Robert Hunt (scientist)
    Robert Hunt (scientist)
    Robert Hunt , a scientist and antiquarian, was born at Devonport, Plymouth, in the United Kingdom. He was involved in statistical, mineralogical and other studies. He died in London on 17 October 1887.-Early life:...

  • Ronald F. Tylecote
    Ronald F. Tylecote
    Ronald Frank Tylecote was a British archaeologist and metallurgist, generally recognised as the founder of the sub-discipline of archaeometallurgy.-Education and profession:...

  • Russell Walter Fox
    Russell Walter Fox
    Russell Walter Fox AC QC LLB is an Australian author, educator, jurist and former chief judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory. He is best known for his extensive report on uranium mining in Australia in the early 1980s....


Leaders and innovators in mining

  • Archimedes
    Archimedes
    Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. Among his advances in physics are the foundations of hydrostatics, statics and an...

     – invented the Archimedes screw
  • Charles Steen
    Charles Steen
    Charles A. Steen , was a geologist who made and lost a fortune after discovering a rich uranium deposit in Utah during the Uranium boom of the early 1950s.-Early years:Steen was born in Caddo, Texas and attended high school in Houston...

  • Daniel Guggenheim
    Daniel Guggenheim
    Daniel Guggenheim was an American industrialist and philanthropist, and a son of Meyer Guggenheim.-Biography:...

  • Ed Schieffelin
    Ed Schieffelin
    Edward Lawrence Schieffelin was an Indian scout and prospector who discovered silver in the Arizona Territory, which led to the founding of Tombstone, Arizona. He partnered with his brother Al and mining engineer Richard Gird in a handshake deal that produced millions of dollars in wealth for all...

  • George Stephenson
    George Stephenson
    George Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives...

     – inventor of the Geordie lamp
    Geordie lamp
    The Geordie lamp was invented by George Stephenson in 1815 as a solution to explosions due to firedamp in coal mines.Although controversy arose between Stephenson's design and the Davy lamp, , Stephenson's original design worked on significantly different principles...

  • Henry Beecher Dierdorff
    Henry Beecher Dierdorff
    Henry Beecher Dierdorff was an American inventor in the field of mining....

     – American inventor of mining equipment
  • Herbert Hoover
    Herbert Hoover
    Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...

  • Horace Austin Warner Tabor
    Horace Austin Warner Tabor
    Horace Austin Warner Tabor , also known as The Bonanza King of Leadville, was an American prospector, businessman, and politician. His life is the subject of Douglas Moore's opera, The Ballad of Baby Doe....

  • Humphry Davy
    Humphry Davy
    Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet FRS MRIA was a British chemist and inventor. He is probably best remembered today for his discoveries of several alkali and alkaline earth metals, as well as contributions to the discoveries of the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine...

     – inventor of the Davy lamp
    Davy lamp
    The Davy lamp is a safety lamp with a wick and oil vessel burning originally a heavy vegetable oil, devised in 1815 by Sir Humphry Davy. It was created for use in coal mines, allowing deep seams to be mined despite the presence of methane and other flammable gases, called firedamp or minedamp.Sir...

  • Meyer Guggenheim
    Meyer Guggenheim
    Meyer Guggenheim was the patriarch of what became known as the Guggenheim family. He was born in Lengnau, Aargau, Switzerland, was of German Jewish ancestry and emigrated to the United States in 1847...

  • Paddy Martinez
    Paddy Martinez
    Patricio "Paddy" Martinez , American prospector and shepherd, discovered uranium at Haystack Mountain, near Grants, New Mexico in 1950. This was the first discovery in the Grants Uranium District, and led to a uranium boom that lasted almost 30 years.Martinez's discovery, on Santa Fe Railroad land,...

  • William Boyce Thompson
    William Boyce Thompson
    William Boyce Thompson, , was an American mining engineer, financier, promoter of Western support for the revolutionary Alexander Kerensky and Bolshevik governments of Russia, philanthropist, and founder of Newmont Mining....

  • William Reid Clanny
    William Reid Clanny
    William Reid Clanny was an Irish inventor.He was born in Bangor, County Down, Ireland. He moved to Sunderland, England and practised as a physician for 45 years.In 1813, he invented the Clanny safety lamp for miners...

     – inventor of the first safety lamp

Mining lists

Main article: List of mining topics


See also

  • Billy Elliot
    Billy Elliot
    Billy Elliot is a 2000 British drama film written by Lee Hall and directed by Stephen Daldry. Set in the fictional town of "Everington" in the real County Durham, UK, it stars Jamie Bell as 11-year-old Billy, an aspiring dancer, Gary Lewis as his coal miner father, Jamie Draven as Billy's older...

  • Brassed Off
    Brassed Off
    Brassed Off is a 1996 British film written and directed by Mark Herman. The film, a British-American co-production made between Channel Four Films, Miramax Films and Prominent Films, is about the troubles faced by a colliery brass band, following the closure of their pit...

  • Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation
    Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation
    CMLR can also mean Common Market Law ReportCentre for Mined Land Rehabilitation is a member of the Sustainable Minerals Institute , the Centre was established at the University of Queensland in 1993 and has built on more than twenty years involvement with the mining and minerals industries...

  • European Route of Industrial Heritage
    European Route of Industrial Heritage
    The European Route of Industrial Heritage is a network of the most important industrial heritage sites in Europe. The aim of the project is to create interest for the common European Heritage of the Industrialisation and its remains...

  • National Coal Mining Museum for England
    National Coal Mining Museum for England
    The National Coal Mining Museum for England is based at the site of Caphouse Colliery in Overton, near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1988 as the Yorkshire Mining Museum and was granted national status in 1995.-History:...

  • National Mining Hall of Fame
    National Mining Hall of Fame
    The National Mining Hall of Fame is a museum located in Leadville, Colorado, USA, dedicated to commemorating the work of miners and people that work with natural resources...

  • Salt-concrete
    Salt-concrete
    Salt-concrete is a construction material that is used to reduce the water inflow in mining shafts in salt mines. It is composed of 16% cement, 39% halite, 16% limestone powder, 14% water and 15% sand.-History:...

  • Scientific drilling
    Scientific drilling
    Scientific drilling is a way to probe down into the Earth, allowing scientists and students to obtain samples of sediments, crust, and upper mantle. In addition to rock samples, drilling technology allows humans to obtain samples of connate fluids and of the subsurface biosphere, mostly microbial...

  • Well drilling
    Well drilling
    Well drilling is the process of drilling a hole in the ground for the extraction of a natural resource such as ground water, natural gas, or petroleum...

  • Water mining

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK