The document discusses various topics related to metallurgy and mining, including:
- A brief history of mining from the Stone Age to the Iron Age.
- Different types of mining such as surface mining (open-pit, strip, quarry, alluvial), underground mining (longwall, room and pillar, etc.), and ocean mining.
- Activities that take place before mining such as traditional prospecting using mules and modern prospecting using trained specialists and sophisticated equipment.
- Various materials recovered through mining like metals, coal, salt, diamonds and the figures showing examples.
2. Introduction of Mining
● Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or
other geological materials from the earth, usually
from an ore body, vein or (coal) seam.
● Any material that cannot be grown through
agricultural processes, or created artificially in a
laboratory or factory, is usually mined. Mining in a
wider sense comprises extraction of any nonrenewable resource.
14. History of Mining
Mining of stone and metals
began in prehistoric times. Since the
beginning of civilization, people
have used stone, ceramics to make
early tools and weapons.
15. History of Mining
Stone Age
Old Stone Age man used tools
of wood, stone, horn, or bone to dig
flint from softer chalk and limestone.
18. History of Mining
Bronze Age
It is known that bronze age man valued copper
and bronze as both artistic and practical objects. The
ore was gained by using only simple stone and bone
tools.
It is thought that initially raw metallic copper
found on the surface would have attracted the ancients
to the uses of copper. Before long they would have
started to scratch away at the surface close to these raw
metal findings with simple tools made of
bone. However later Bronze age man started to recover
the ore from shallow open pits called bell pits.
21. History of Mining
Iron Age
Iron age generally is considering to
have started about 1200 B.C.
Existing iron ore deposits were not
exploited in ancient Egypt until the Late
Period, but the metal was occasionally
found in its meteoric form and put to use
as early as the 4th millennium BCE.
23. History of Mining
Iron Age
The smelting of iron was by the
process known as the 'Bloomery'
method.
Bellows were used to fan the flames
and the end product was a malleable ball
of impure iron which could be
hammered to shape.
30. Surface Mining
Open-pit bench mining
● Open-pit mining involves excavation
which looks like a terrace.
● Open-pit mining is sometimes called
open-cut mining since the overburden is
not returned to the pit and an open cut
remains after mining is completed.
32. Figure 21. The worlds biggest open pit mine can be found
near Hibbing, Minnesota.
33. Figure 22. Bingham Canyon Mine, located near Salt Lake City, is
the world's deepest man-made open pit excavation.
34. Surface Mining
Strip Mining
● Is the process of mining a seam of minerals
by first removing a long strip of overlying
soil and rock (overburden).
● Commonly used to mine coal or tar sand.
39. Surface Mining
Strip Mining
● Contour Stripping
− When a coal system is
located along a steep hillside
and only one cut into the hill
can be economically made.
41. Surface Mining
Quarrying Mining
● Is a big man-made hole in the ground
from where minerals or rock are taken out.
● Quarries are normally dug deeper and
bigger.
● When they are later be used to backfill the
mined area, frequently utilized as landfill
sites for the disposal of waste
43. Surface Mining
Alluvial Mining
Concentrations in streambed or river
diamond by removing the overlying barren
ground and digging up the bearing ground.
Extracts bed sand and gravel.
46. Surface Mining
Alluvial Mining
● Panning
− The simplest technique to extract gold
from placer ore
− Mined ore is placed in a large metal or
plastic pan.
−During panning, mercury is added to the
fine mixture of gold and sand
48. Surface Mining
Alluvial Mining
● Rocker
− A cradle-like piece of
equipment that could because
used like a cradle to sift sands
through screens.
− A primary tool used to
separate gold from pay dirt.
50. Surface Mining
Alluvial Mining
● Long Tom
− Has a greater capacity than a rocker
and does not require the labor of
rocking.
− It was mainly made of wood, with a
metal bottom.
54. Surface Mining
Alluvial Mining
● Hydraulicking
− a form of mining that employs
water under pressure to dislodge
rock material
− often applied water under very
high pressure
56. Underground Mining
Figure 32 . Underground
Mining
● Underground
mining can be chosen
for any type of land
surface and for any
type of deposit too
deep for surface
methods.
● are used when the
mineral deposit lies
deep beneath the
surface of the earth.
57. Underground Mining
Underground Requirements
● Low-ventilation demand- quantity
passageways for air are rather rigidly fixed
and
geometry
of
● Compactness- Space is a premium, especially height.
● Easy Visibility- Most operating areas are lighted only by
individual cap-mounted or hand-held lamps
● Hand portability- Units or components must frequently be
hand-carried into an operating area
● Absence of spark and flame- Equipment is used in or near
explosives, timber supports and combustible gas or dust.
62. Underground Mining
Open stopes/ Room and Pillar
A mining system in which the
mined material is extracted across a
horizontal plane while leaving "pillars"
of untouched material to support the
roof overburden leaving open areas or
"rooms" underground.
65. Underground Mining
Sublevel Stoping
is a method of underground
mining method that involves
vertical mining in a large, open
stope that has been created
inside an ore vein.
68. Underground Mining
Shrinkage Stoping
In shrinkage stoping,the
mining proceeds upward between
levels in steeply dipping ore
bodies, and most of the broken
ore is left in the stope until mining
is completed.
73. Underground Mining
Square Set-and-Fill Stoping
A form of stoping used
in hardrock mining that uses
systematic or random timbering
placed between the foot and
hanging wall of the vein.
87. Underground Mining
Nuclear Blasting Mining
Nuclear explosives have the
capability of fracturing and breaking
large volumes of rock at low cost, which
makes them of interest for potential use
in mining.
90. Ocean Mining
are used when
the mineral deposit
occurs in sea water,
ocean floor, and
those that occur in
rock formations
beneath the ocean
floor.
Figure 44. Ocean Mining
92. Ocean Mining
Seawater Mining
● Seawater mining contains the dissolved salts
of many different elements in various
proportions.
● Ordinary salt (NaCl) is recovered from the sea
water by solar evaporation. In this process, sea
water is led by canals to wide, shallow ponds on
shore. The canals then are closed and the action
of the sand and wind begins the evaporation
process.
99. Activities Before Mining
Traditional Prospecting
The old-time prospector used a
burro or mule to carry his camping
supplies, pick and shovel a pan for
washing stream gravels, two or three
pieces of drill steel and a sledgehammer
to drive them and perhaps a keg of
blasting powder.
101. Activities Before Mining
Modern Prospecting
The modern prospector is a member of a
team of highly trained specialists who use
sophisticated equipment in a
planned, systematic search. The team generally
include experts in
geology, geophysics, geochemistry, computer
techniques, drilling, mineral
economics, metallurgy, and related fields.