Mining Engineering

Glossary of Terms
Below is a glossary of terms that gives you a basic explanation of terms discussed within this
course.
Term
Beneficiation
Deposit
Disseminated ore
Factor of Safety (FoS)
Faults
Flat deposit
Flotation

Explanation
An industrial process carried out on a mined ore to increase its
concentration and remove gangue.
A mineral deposit is a natural geological occurrence of minerals in
anomalously high concentrations, either as a body or disseminated.
This is a deposit where the ore is spread throughout worthless
rock, without forming a well-defined body.
The FoS represents the ratio between the capacity of the slope to
resist the driving forces acting on it (as gravity or water pressure)
and the acting forces themselves.
When the parts have moved relative to one another, the
displacement can range from a few centimeters to kilometers.
A mineral deposit occurring as a horizontal or gently dipping body,
usually at an angle of less than 20 degrees.
A process based on differences in surface chemistry. Flotation is a
process where we use gas bubbles to separate hydrophilic and
hydrophobic particles.

Footwall

The rock forming the lower boundary of an inclined ore body.

Gangue

Minerals of no value that occur mixed with the ore minerals

Geochemical
exploration

Rock and soil is dominated by silicon, oxygen, aluminium, iron,

sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium and carbon.

Hanging wall

The rock forming the upper boundary of an inclined ore body.

Hydrophobic
Hydrophilic
Inclined deposit
Mine
Mineral

Open pit

This is water-fearing or water-repelling. These types of particles

prefer to stick to air bubbles.
This is water-loving. These types of particles attach to the air
bubbles.
A mineral deposit occurring as a dipping body separated into
inclined between 20 and 50 degrees and steeply inclined (from 50
degrees to vertical).
Excavation made in the ground to recover minerals or ores.
Naturally occurring inorganic, geological substance with a defined
chemical composition.
This is the exploitation of a deposit outcropping to the surface or
confined at shallow depths, where the waste rock lying above the
deposit and at the sides (called overburden) is removed and
transported away from the place of their deposition.

Mining Engineering Glossary of Terms

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Ore
Orebody
Overburden
Personal Protective
Equipment (PPE)
Quarry
Rock mass
Surface mine

Tailings

Tensile Strength

UCS
Underground mine

Waste

Minerals that can be mined, from which a commodity of value can

be extracted.
A deposit of ore (usually with gangue) with well-defined extent. Ore
bodies can be of any shape, such as veins, layers, lenses and
pipes.
A rock which lies above an ore body, if the body is not exposed at
the surface.
This designed to protect employees from workplace hazards that
could cause serious injuries or illnesses.
Excavation made in the ground to obtain soils and rock materials
for civil construction.
As a whole, it is a combination of blocks of homogeneous rock,
also called rock matrix, separated by discontinuities.
A mine where the deposit is excavated directly at the ground
surface, or else, the overburden is removed to expose the ore at
the surface.
Gangue and rock of no value that are separated from mined ore in
a beneficiation process, and which usually contain residues of the
extracted ore minerals.
The tensile strength is the maximum value the specimen can
handle when it is subjected to tension. Tensile strength is typically
less than a tenth of the UCS.
This is the maximum stress the rock specimen can handle when in
simple compression. Typical values range from few tens of
megapascals to few hundreds of megapascals.
A mine where the deposit is worked from excavations beneath the
ground surface.
Rock material that must be removed with the minerals in order to
recover them economically, but which has no economic value.
Surface mines generally produce more waste than underground
mines.

Mining Engineering Glossary of Terms

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