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Oil, Gas & Mining vocabulary · Mine Types & Mining Operations

Open-pit mine

Meaning in oil, gas & mining, with examples

/ˌoʊpən ˈpɪt maɪn/nounCore term

In oil, gas & mining, open-pit mine means: A mine where ore is dug from the surface in a large, stepped hole that gets wider and deeper over time, instead of through underground tunnels.

In Turkish: açık ocak, açık işletme, açık maden ocağı

How it is used

Also called an opencast mine (mainly British, especially for coal) or a surface mine. Typical words are pit, bench, haul road, pit wall, stripping and drill and blast. Engineers 'design the pit' and talk about pit depth and pit expansion.

Example sentences

  1. The open-pit mine is now 400 metres deep.

  2. When the open-pit mine reaches its final depth, the company plans to go underground.

Common collocations

  • open-pit mining
  • pit wall
  • haul road
  • pit expansion
  • final pit
  • benchOne of the flat, step-like levels cut into the walls of an open pit or quarry, where drilling, blasting and loading take place.
  • overburdenThe soil and waste rock lying on top of an ore body or coal seam, which must be removed before the valuable material can be mined.
  • stripping ratioIn an open-pit mine, the amount of waste rock that must be removed for each unit of ore mined; a ratio of 4:1 means four tonnes of waste for every tonne of ore.
  • haul truckA very large dump truck used in open-pit mines to carry ore and waste rock from the loading area to the crusher, a stockpile or the waste dump.
  • underground mineA mine where ore or coal is reached through shafts, declines or tunnels and extracted below the surface, used when the deposit is too deep for an open pit.

More terms: Mine Types & Mining Operations

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