Mining Glossary

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Backfill - The process of filling, and/or the material used to fill, a mine opening. In general refers to the material placed "back" to refill an excavation.

Ballast - Rough, unscreened gravel as used to form the bed of a railway or substratum for new roads.

Barren Solution - A solution from which all possible valuable constituents have been removed.

Bed - The smallest division of stratified layers marked by more or less well-defined divisional planes.

Belt Conveyors - A moving endless belt that rides on rollers and on which coal or other materials can be carried for various distances.

Belt Feeders - Short loop of conveyor belt, or articulated steel plate, used to draw ore at a regulated rate from under a bin or stockpile.

Belting - One of the main parts of a belt conveyor. The belting consists of plies of cotton duck impregnated with rubber, and with top and bottom covers of rubber. The carrying capacity of the belt will vary depending on the running speed and the width of the belt.

Bench - The horizontal step or floor along which coal, ore, stone, or overburden is worked or quarried. In tunnel excavation, where a top heading is driven, the bench is the mass of rock left, extending from about the spring line to the bottom of the tunnel.

Beneficiation - The processing of ores to regulate the size of a desired product, remove unwanted constituents, and improve the quality, purity, or assay grade of a desired product. Concentration or other preparation of ore for smelting by drying, flotation, or magnetic separation.

Bituminous Coal - A coal which is high in carbonaceous matter, having between 15 and 50 percent volatile matter. Also known as soft coal.

Blast - The operation of blasting, or rending rock or earth by means of explosives.

Block Coal - A bituminous coal that breaks into large lumps or cubical blocks; also, coal passing over certain sized screens instead of through them, such as a 5-, 6-, and 8-inch block.

Blower - A fan employed in forcing air either into a mine or into one portion of a mine.

Blunging - The wet process of blending, or suspending, ceramic material in liquid by agitation.

Bone Coal - Coal with a high ash content, almost rock.

Box Cut - In surface mining, the initial cut driven in a property, where no open side exists; this results in a high wall on both sides of the cut.

Brattice - A board of plank lining, or other partition, in any mine passage to confine the air and force it into the working places. Its object is to keep the intake air from finding its way by a short route into the return airway.

Brattice Cloth - Fire-resistant canvas or duck used to erect a brattice.

Briquet - A block of compressed coal dust, used as fuel; also, a slab or block of artificial stone.

British Thermal Unit (BTU) - The amount of heat needed to raise 1 pound of water 1 degree F (equal to 252 calories). Symbol, Btu.

Brown Coal - A low-rank coal which is brown, brownish-black, but rarely black. It commonly retains the structures of the original wood. It is high in moisture, low in heat value, and checks badly upon drying.

Bucket - A vessel (as a tub or scoop) for hoisting and conveying material (as coal, ore, grain, gravel, mud, or concrete). A part of an excavator that digs, lifts, and carries dirt.

Bug Dust - Fine coal or rock material resulting from dry boring, drilling, or the use of other cutting machines in underground work places.

Buggy - A small wagon or truck used for short transportation of heavy materials (as coal in a mine or ingots in a steel mill).

Bulldozer (Dozer) - A highly versatile piece of earth excavating and moving equipment especially useful in land clearing and leveling work, in stripping topsoil, in road building and ramp building and in floor or bench cleanup and gathering operations.

By-product - A secondary or additional product; for example, the more common byproducts of coal ovens are gas, tar, benzol, and ammonium sulfate.