Santacruz Silver Mining reports fatality at Tres Amigos mine in Bolivia
Tres Amigos mine, a part of the Caballo Blanco Group of mines, has resumed operations after it was shut down following the incident.
Here’s a list of ten interesting mining terms you might like to know, if you don’t already.
We’ve “mined” the nuggets on this list from social news site Reddit, where various contributors posted the terms and definitions in answer to a question about miners’ slang.
Hats off especially to Reddit users HandsOffTheGoods and the__funk for providing not only the words themselves but also the wording of the definitions.
In late night talk show fashion, we’ve listed the items in reverse order, saving the “best” for last.
Enjoy!
Top Ten Mining Terms
10. Bench: floor or ground anywhere underground
9. Back: the roof anywhere underground
8. Drift: what you would call a tunnel
7. Ramp: drift that runs from level down to other levels of a mine
6. Raise: vertical drift (usually for ventilation purposes)
5. Face: the surface you are drilling in attempt to advance your drift
4. Jumbo: machine that drills the face
3. Muckers: movers of rock, which is also called “muck”
2. Gloryhole: a high grade portion of ore
And the number one mining term is…
1. Jackpot: a particularly bad work area
Other interesting mining terms are certain to be missing from today’s list. Write us with your favorites.
20 Comments
Fuzz Englemeuer
Tunnel passes through a mountain with and entrance at one emd and an exit at the other.
An adit goes into a mountain with no separate exit.
Rib… side wall of a drift, adit or tunnel,
Face… the end destination of a drift or adit.
Vein… structure in host rock carrying the goodies you are looking for…ie. Gold, etc.
Hanging Wall and Foot Wall… Fault Zone… Portal… Headache Rack… Piss Ditch… Ooops! ( something you NEVER want to hear!!) the list of terms goes on and on.
sailormac
Muckers are the safety rubber boots you wear on your feet !
MasterMiner
Never heard of muckers as foot wear Muckers are trainee miners or machines used to remover material ore or waste material such as loaders of all types?
Guest
Mudders, not muckers
James Bond
The number 1 term you should know in the mining industry is… Your Fired. Because you will hear it often if you work in mining or mining projects.
Milz
LOL. So true!!!!!
rocknut
If you get fired, I guess “things didn’t pan out”. An term from the old days of panning for gold. Now used in common language. I’ll bet there are lots of other terms that came from miners that is now used in common language.
CanadianView
In Canada, Muckers are both the safety boots as well as the people who remove the blasted material. Slickers are the rubber coats and/or coveralls that miners wear in wet conditions. A Jackleg is an air driven, hand held drilling machine with a pivot point and that has an extendable “leg” to horizontally advance the position of the steel & bit. A Stoper is basically the same but without the ability to pivot. A Jackleg advances forward but a Stoper is used to vertically drill & bolt the Back.
Then we have ScoopTrams, Long Toms, Bazookas, Long Hole Buggies, Alimaks, Scissor Decks, McLean Bolters, etc, etc. The list is extensive.
Mike Failla
How about winze? Shoofly also, how about bootleg?
Mike Failla
We always called the supply guys muckers. Adits we always called them when they came from surface and went into earth. Drifts start underground and go out to the working stopes (hey, another term) Fond of grizzley too! (LOL)
Julian Houlding
The 360 Mining course on EduMine provides a good overview of many key and common mining terms. Visit http://www.threesixtymining.com for more information.
golddigger69
A glory hole is when a stope breaches the surface. Often it is after the stope has been abandoned and it “self-stopes” its way to the surface, so it is really about past glory, and has nothing specifically to do with grade other than it was the ore body years ago.
Fletch Cooper
What you are calling muckers in Oz we call Boggers.So after blasting they go in to bog it out and load the trucks.
Gerhard Esterhuizen
Madala site: an old worked-out area where the word madala refers to old and is generally reserved for an old male person, an African word and is used with respect
Wallace Samiselo
Yes, bench is more used in open pit mining but you can also have a ‘stope bench’ in underground mining, especially in Sublevel Open stoping (SLOS). What about the meaning of Bootleg?
moomuch
Bootleg = leftover explosives after a blast, generally in the face.
Joe Smith
What about “doggin it”, or a “dog f—er”. There’s lots of these around, specially stopping to read this when they shoud be “mucking out their round”
Joe Smith
You can “raise” a real “jackpot” with a “mucker” on the “bench” in a “ramp” facing the “back” if you try to “drift” into their “gloryhole” with your “jumbo”
justsomedude
I like to the term bedboards
justsomedude
A place where a miner can rest