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

Stripping ratio

Meaning in oil, gas & mining, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In oil, gas & mining, stripping ratio means: In 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.

In Turkish: dekapaj oranı, örtü kazı oranı

How it is used

Also called strip ratio. It is a key cost driver: a higher stripping ratio means more trucks, fuel and time. Planners weigh the stripping ratio against grade to decide how deep a pit can go before moving underground makes more sense.

Example sentences

  1. The stripping ratio will rise to 6:1 in the final years of the pit.

  2. Coal mines with a low stripping ratio have much lower costs.

Common collocations

  • strip ratio
  • waste-to-ore ratio
  • high stripping ratio
  • life-of-mine stripping ratio
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • gradeThe amount of valuable metal or mineral in a rock, usually given as a percentage (for copper) or in grams per tonne (for gold and silver).
  • 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.

More terms: Mine Types & Mining Operations

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