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

Overburden

Meaning in oil, gas & mining, with examples

/ˈoʊvərbɜːrdən/nounCommon term

In oil, gas & mining, overburden means: The 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.

In Turkish: örtü tabakası, dekapaj malzemesi, üst örtü

How it is used

Common in open-pit and coal mining. Removing it is called stripping. Mine planners talk about overburden thickness, overburden removal and where to dump it. Topsoil is usually stored separately so it can be used later for rehabilitation.

Example sentences

  1. We moved 4 million cubic metres of overburden last year.

  2. The overburden is thin in the south, so mining will start there.

Common collocations

  • overburden removal
  • overburden thickness
  • strip overburden
  • overburden dump
  • 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.
  • open-pit mineA 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.
  • 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.
  • reclamationReturning land disturbed by mining or drilling to a safe, stable and useful condition, for example by reshaping waste dumps, spreading topsoil and planting vegetation.

More terms: Mine Types & Mining Operations

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