A supplement to the Terrace Review

. Mining

VS

Minds.

- Mine-less Minds

By Stephanie Wiebe

: Most of us don’t know
much about mining. What
the average guy on the
street knows about mining
- could fit. on the tip of a
diamond drill bit. Ask a
professional to tell you
about mines, though, and
youll hear a_ technical
stream of mining lingo
guaranteed to glaze your
eyes. In an effort to bridge
the gap between mining
minds and mine-less
minds, the following
industry terms have been
clearly defined for the
layperson:

Geophysical: Miners throw this
word around a lot. Geo, from
Latin origins meaning “earth or
ground", and physical, meaning
materially existing
geophysical means that the earth
or ground exists. And they made a
Science out of that?

Shaft, decline, adit: ‘These are
the primary mine openings, that is,
basic types of mine entrances.
Everyone knows that to get the
shaft means to be cheated, so
obviously, jhis cannot be an
intelligent choice of mine
entrance. Decline also has a
negative connotation, that of going
downhill, and is probably not used
much either. Adit is something
done in the mine’s accounting
department, which can’t be located
inside the mine since they don’t
even have a decent entrance yet.

Muck: Mining people refer to
ore that has been blasted into
pieces as muck. Webster's

dictionary says that muck is soft,

moist farmyard manure. Who do
you think is right?

Mucking, muck pile: Remember
the manure. Do we really need to
define these terms more clearly?

Vein-type orebodies, massive
orebodies and tabular orebodies:
These are - descriptive terms
- describing the mine workers.

Vein-types are the skinny workers,

massive orebodies are the big

ones, and tabular refers to the
“average-sized,

that they’ve coined these terms

shows that physical size must be.

of great importance ‘to. mining
companies.

Winze: Miners take coffee
breaks just like everyone else, and
the occasional round of poker
comes up. Sometimes you loses,
and sometimes you winze.

Open Pit, pit limits: Miners
work together underground in
enclosed Spaces, a situation in
which pits become quite
imporiant. Open pit refers to a
hardworking shirtless miner
raising his arm, dnd pit limits are
the set number of men allowed to
perform this stretch at one time --
for health and comfort reasons,
you understand.

Blasting: This 1. done to those

CTgO,

particularly —
organized workers, The mere fact

exceeding the pit limit. ;
Some common mining acronyms
defined:

‘VCR: Miners think that this
stands for Vertical Crater Retreat.
You and I know what a VCR

‘really is, right?

ANFO: This stands for an
explosive mixture, ammonium
nitrate and fuel oil. It could also

‘Stand for Alien Nudisis Flying
Abnormal |

Overhead, or 4
Newfoundlanders Found Outside,

but they probably wouldn’t release

those definitions to the public.
What else are they hiding?

LHD: Load-haul-dump, a type
of mucking machine which deals
with muck. Sounds more like
manure all the time, eh?

Having the terminology clarified
and defined in everyday language
brings mining into focus for the

average person to understand.

Now that you understand mining
lingo, you can _ intelligently
converse with miners around the
world. These are very down-to-
earth people, so the next time you
meet a miner, try out your new
skills. It’s fun, and you'll really
impress the miner. As long as you
don’t exceed the pit limit, that is.

Mining Week, February 27, 1991 5

a0

(OAS)

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