Appendix I Glossary of Mining and Related Terms Relevant to Mine Water
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APPENDIX I GLOSSARY OF MINING AND RELATED TERMS RELEVANT TO MINE WATER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING The glossary which follows is drawn from the experience of the authors, and represents terminology which was current in the English-speaking mining world at the start of the 21st Century. The glossary is restricted to mining and geological terms likely to be heard in the context of mine water management. We do not provide a general geochemical or hydrological glossary. Neither is this a thoroughly exhaustive glossary of mining engi- neering. The reader seeking a general mining glossary is referred to works such as Greenwell (1888), Orchard (1991) or Rieuwerts (1998). The glossary is not intended to cover geological and chemical terminology, with the exception of a few terms restricted largely to mining applications of these sciences. In the definitions which follow, words are underlined where they are themselves defined elsewhere in this glossary. Acid mine drainage Water which became acidic during its passage through pyrite- bearing mined strata. Synonym: “acid rock drainage”. Acid rock drainage See “acid mine drainage”. The term “acid rock drainage” is used predominantly in Canada, with the implication that the acidity problem is due to the rocks rather than the process of mining. There are at least two reasons why this usage is objectionable: (i) “Acid rocks” sensu stricto are a group of igneous rocks which are not noted for giving rise to problematic drainage. (ii) It is somewhat disingenuous to attempt to exonerate mining in this manner, as acidic drainage is relatively rare in unmined sulphidic strata, but is common where mining has increased the rock mass permeability and allowed oxygen to access previously reduced strata. Adit A roadway, horizontal or gently inclined, which connects sub- surface mine workings to the ground surface. Synonyms: day-level, day-drift, drift, level, Ingaun E’e. Advance dewatering Dewatering an area to be mined, by pumping or gravity drainage (e.g. using inclined boreholes), prior to the commencement of mining. Afterdamp Carbon monoxide, formed by methane explosion or fire under- ground. (The name ‘afterdamp’ refers to its common presence as a hazard in a mine after an explosion, in which circumstances it poses a grave danger to unprepared rescuers). 397 398 MINE WATER Angle of draw The angle formed by the edge of a longwall panel and the outer- most limit of subsidence in the overlying strata caused by the goafing of this panel. Auger mining The use of horizontal, large-diameter boring machines to extract coal from beneath highwalls in strip mines, or (less commonly) from outcrops in hilly terrain. Backfill (i) (verb) To return previously-stripped overburden to an opencast mine void after coaling ceases. (ii) (noun) The broken waste rock material which occupies a restored opencast void. Baffle banks A mound of tipped overburden or stored soil placed around the perimeter of an opencast or open-pit mine to limit the external visibility of the mine void and/or provide a partial barrier to site noise and dust. Synonym: bund (meaning (ii). Bank (i) A slope. (ii) The ground surface, as a point of reference for underground workings. Typical usage: “Get the ore to bank”, meaning “take the ore out of the mine”. Batch The name given to a waste rock pile in the Somerset coalfield. Batter (i) An artificial slope in a waste rock pile or surface mine (ii) The slope angle of such an artificial slope. Bench A more-or-less horizontal surface of rock, developed within a surface mine as the highwall retreats in response to repeated blasting and excavation. Blackdamp See “stythe”. Block caving A specialized form of stoping. Bing Scottish term for a waste rock pile. Bord or Board A mine roadway driven as one of a set of mutually perpendicular roadways for the purpose of extracting coal or other minerals by means of bord-and-pillar mining. Bord-and-pillar A method of extraction in which the coal or ore is removed by means of a set of mutually perpendicular roadways (‘bords’), leaving pillars of intact coal or ore to support the roof. Synonyms: pillar- and-stall, room-and-pillar, stoop-and-room. Box cut A roughly rectangular opencast void sunk through overburden cover to exploit payable rock. A box cut typically has sidewalls on two sides, and a highwall on the third side. One or more box cuts are usually sunk in the first stages of excavation of a major open- cast mine void, with extraction of the material between them resulting in development of the main opencast highwall. Bund (i) An embankment constructed to impound water (commonly used in constructed wetlands). (ii) A pile of overburden constructed around a strip mine void for amenity purposes (limiting the external visibility of the mine void, providing a partial barrier to blasting noise and dust). Synonym: baffle banks. GLOSSARY OF MINING AND RELATED TERMS 399 Canch Headspace cut in a roadway above the roof of the seam, usually to obtain clearance for access. See also “ripping”. Chokedamp See “stythe” Coaling The extraction of coal from an opencast void. Collar The rim of a mine shaft and/or the structural features (in timber, brick, concrete or steel) used to support it. Colliery Coal mine. Country rock Non-mineralized bedrock enclosing an orebody. Cross-measures drift See “inter-seam drift”. (or raise) Crown hole A small (typically < 5 m diameter) hollow on the ground surface, usually roughly circular in plan, caused by collapse due to void migration, (or in some cases by winnowing of soil into an underground void, which may have migrated). Synonym: pit fall, subsidence depression, subsidence hollow. Crown pillar A block of intact rock left between the top of a stope and the ground surface. Crut See “inter-seam drift”. Cross-cut (i) A roadway driven between two separate orebodies (ii) See “stenton”. Day-level See “adit”. Day-drift See “adit”. Decline See “inclined drift” Deep mine Any mine in which the miner and/or his machinery work underground. Deep mining Mining underground. Dewatering (i) Preventing the flooding of mine workings by pumping or gravity drainage. (ii) Removing excess water from sludges generated during mineral processing or mine water treatment. Usually undertaken to make disposal easier and cheaper. Dib An inclined adit or inter-seam drift. (Term used mainly in northern English lead mines). Downcast Adjective applied to signify that a given shaft or adit conducts (or conducted) ventilation into the workings. (see also “upcast”). Drainage adit An adit which is constructed such that it under-drains a volume of workings by gravity. Synonyms: sough, watergate, water-level, waterloose. Draw-point A short tunnel driven from a main haulage roadway into the foot of a stope, from which ore can be “mucked-out” after blasting in a sub-level stoping operation. Drift (i) A synonym of adit, particularly in coal mining. (ii) A mine accessed by an adit (“drift mine”). (iii) Sometimes used in coal mining to signify underground road- ways other than an adit. For instance a roadway driven outside of a seam may be termed a “stone drift”, and an inclined 400 MINE WATER roadway connecting two separate working horizons may be termed an “inter-seam drift”. (iv) A verb, meaning “to drive a mine tunnel” as in: “They drifted into the Main Seam, but found it wasn’t worth working”. (v) (Geol.) Unconsolidated strata, generally of Quaternary age, lying between the soil and rockhead. Drift mine A deep mine (usually a coal mine) accessed by a drift (i.e. an adit). Dripper Water entering an underground working by dripping through the ceiling. If the chemistry is favourable, drippers may form stalactites. Egress A route out of a deep mine. (See “secondary (means of) egress”). Endless A very long hoop of cable stretching the length of an engine plane, turning on pulleys installed at either end of the plane, and used to haul tubs in- or out-bye. Engine plane A main haulage roadway in a mine, along which run-of-mine ore/ coal is drawn by engines operating endless cable-hauled sets of tubs. Engine shaft A shaft used by a haulage engine. Face The active front of excavation of the coal/ore in a mine. Fan drift An adit fitted with a ventilation fan. Fan pit A shaft fitted with a ventilation fan. Fault (Geol.) A rock-mass discontinuity, on either side of which the strata have demonstrably been displaced vertically and/or transversally. Feeder A sustained, discrete, voluminous inflow of water to underground workings (analogous in appearance and behaviour to a natural spring). Fines or Finings See “washery fines” Finings pond A pond in which coal washery fines are disposed of, by sedi- mentation. Synonym: tailings pond. Firedamp An explosive mixture of methane and air. Flat or Flatt (i) A horizontal orebody flanking a generally vertical vein. (ii) The place in which all of the coal won from a given district of bord-and-pillar workings was marshalled for haulage to bank. Footwall The country rock immediately underlying a dipping orebody or fault. Furnace pit or A shaft fitted with a furnace which heated air to drive a mine Furnace shaft ventilation circuit. (Rarely used after about 1900). Gangue Minerals of no economic value which occur in close association with ore minerals. Gate See “roadway”. Gin (i) A winding device used to haul materials and run-of-mine from the workings. (An antique term). Gin shaft A shaft fitted with a gin. Gin whimsey A North Pennine term for a gin shaft. Goaf (i) A shattered mass of rock, formed by the collapse of roof strata into a void from which coal (or, less commonly, other minerals) has been removed.