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Mining
Glossary
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Scraper Loader - A machine used for loading
coal or rock by pulling an open-bottomed scoop back and forth
between the face and the loading point by means of ropes, sheaves,
and a multiple drum hoist. The filled scoop is pulled on the bottom
to an apron or ramp where the load is discharged onto a car or
conveyor.
Screen - A large sieve for grading or sizing
coal, ore, rock, or aggregate. It consists of a suitably mounted
surface of woven wire or of punched plate. It may be flat or cylindrical,
horizontal or inclined, stationary, shaking, or vibratory, and
either wet or dry operation.
Screenings - Coal which will pass through the
smallest mesh screen normally loaded for commercial sale for industrial
use.
Seam - A stratum or bed of coal or other mineral;
generally applied to large deposits of coal.
Shaft - An excavation of limited area compared
with its depth, made for finding or mining ore or coal, raising
water, ore, rock, or coal, hoisting and lowering men and material,
or ventilating underground workings. The term is often specifically
applied to approximately vertical shafts, as distinguished from
an incline or inclined shaft. A shaft is provided with a hoisting
engine at the top for handling men, rock, and supplies, or it
may be used only in connection with pumping or ventilating operations.
Shaker Conveyor - A conveyor consisting of a
length of metal troughs, with suitable supports, to which a reciprocating
motion is imparted by drives. In the case of a downhill conveyor,
a simple to-and-fro motion is sufficient to cause the coal to
slide. With a level or a slight uphill gradient, a differential
motion is necessary, that is, a quick backward and slower forward
strokes. The quick backward stroke causes the trough to slide
under the coal, while the slower forward stroke moves the coal
along to a new position. Also called jigger.
Shale - A laminated sediment, in which the constituent
particles are predominantly of the clay grade.
Shearing - Making a vertical cut or groove in
a coal face, breast, or block, as opposed to a kerf, which is
a horizontal cut. Called in Arkansas as cut or cutting.
Shoot - To break coal loose from the seam by
the use of explosives; loosely used, also as applied to other
coal breaking devices.
Shooter - The person who fires a charged hole
after satisfying himself/herself that the area is free from firedamp.
A shot firer.
Short Ton - A unit of weight that equals 20
short hundredweights or 2,000 avoirdupois pounds. Used chiefly
in the United States, in Canada, and in the Republic of South
Africa.
Shortwall - The reverse of longwall, frequently
used to mean the face of a room. A method of mining in which comparatively
small areas are worked separately, as opposed to longwall; for
example, room and pillar.
Shot Firer - A person whose special duty is
to fire shots or blasts, especially in coal mines. A shot lighter.
Shovel - Any bucket-equipped machine used for
digging and loading earthy or fragmented rock materials. There
are two types of shovels, the square-point and the round-point.
These are available with either long or short handles. The round-point
shovel is used for general digging since its forward edge, curved
to a point, most readily penetrates moist clays and sands. The
square-point shovel is used for shoveling against hard surfaces
or for trimming.
Shuttle Car - A vehicle on rubber tires or caterpillar
treads and usually propelled by electric motors, electrical energy
which is supplied by a diesel-driven generator, by storage batteries,
or by a power distribution system through a portable cable. Its
chief function is the transfer of raw materials, such as coal
and ore, from loading machines in trackless areas of a mine to
the main transportation system.
Silt - A fine-grained sediment having a particle
size intermediate between that of fine sand and clay.
Slack - Small coal, usually less than 1/8 inch.
It has a high ash content and is difficult to clean in the washery.
High ash slack is being used increasingly in special boilers and
power stations.
Slice - In an ore body of considerable lateral
extent and thickness, the ore is removed in layers termed slices.
Slope - The main working gallery or entry of
a coal seam which dips at an angle and along which mine cars are
hauled. An entrance to a mine driven down through an inclined
coal seam; also, a mine having such an entrance.
Slope Mine - A mine with an inclined opening
used for the same purpose as a shaft or a drift mine. It resembles
a tunnel, a drift, or a shaft, depending on its inclination.
Sludge - Mineral, mud, and slurry too thick
to flow. A soft mud, slush, or mire; for example the solid product
of a filtration process before drying (filter cake).
Slurry - The fine carbonaceous discharge from
a colliery washery. All washeries produce some slurry which must
be treated to separate the solids from the water in order to have
a clear effluent for reuse or discharge. Also, in some cases,
it is economical to extract the fine coal from the effluent.
Spoil Bank - To leave coal and other minerals
that are not marketable in the mine.
Stoker Coal - A screen size of coal specifically
for use in automatic firing equipment. This coal can be of any
rank and the stoker is usually designed to fit the coal available.
Factors of importance in the selection of coal for stoker use
are: size limits, size consist, uniformity of shipments, coking
properties, ash fusion characteristics, ash, sulfur and volatile-matter
percentages.
Strip - In coal mining, to remove the earth,
rock, and other material from a seam of coal, generally by power
shovels. Generally practiced only where the coal seam lies close
to the earth's surface. To remove from a quarry, or other open
working, the overlying earth and disintegrated or barren surface
rock.
Strip Mine - An opencut mine in which the overburden
is removed from a coal bed before the coal is taken out.
Subsidence - A sinking down of a part of the
earth's crust. The lowering of the strata, including the surface,
due to underground excavations. Surface caving or distortion due
to effects of collapse of deep workings.
Surface Mining - The mining in surface excavations.
It includes placer mining, mining in open glory-hole or milling
pits, mining and removing ore from open cuts by hand or with mechanical
excavation and transportation equipment, and the removal of capping
or overburden to uncover the ores. Mining at or near the surface.
This type of mining is generally done where the overburden can
be removed without too much expense. Also called strip mining,
placer mining, opencast mining, opencut mining, or open-pit mining.
Surface Rights - The ownership
of the surface of land only, where mineral rights are reserved.
Those reserved to the owner of the land beneath which ore is being
mined. The right of a mineral owner or an oil and gas lessee to
use so much of the surface of land as may be reasonably necessary
for the conduct of operations under the lease.
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