INTRODUCTION TO MINING

Fourth -year students

Chapter 1
Introduction, Mining project cycle, Basic Definitions, and Roles of mining
geologist

Dr. Mahmoud A. A. Youssef

I. Introduction
Mining is the extraction of economically valuable minerals from the earth surface. Mining is
one of the essential industries which involves both exploration and exploitation of minerals
from the earth economically and with minimum damage to the environment. Mining is
necessary for nations to have adequate and dependable supplies of minerals and materials
to meet their economic needs.

Mining is a unique industry whose impact extends to national and local economic
development, environment, and sociocultural profiles, often specific to a few large mining
areas in a particular region or country.

Mining projects can classified generically into two different forms of mining: (1) large-scale
mining and (2) small-scale and artisanal mining. Both create very different contexts for
opportunities and risks that may evolve from the use of natural resources.

Large-scale mining projects: Large mines generate about 85 percent of the world’s nonfuel
minerals production. The industry employs an estimated 2.5 million people worldwide and
is dominated by some 50 major mining and metals companies, each with an average of
approximately US$4.3 billion in revenue. These companies operate globally and are by origin
concentrated in four countries: the United States, South Africa, Australia, and Canada. They
invest annually about US$25–US$30 billion worldwide.

Small-scale mining projects: Artisanal and small-scale mining generate about 15 percent
of the world’s nonfuel minerals yet are a major source of income—in about 30 countries
around the world—for at least an estimated 13 million people, a significant proportion of
whom are women and children. Between 80 million and 100 million people are estimated to
depend on small-scale mining for their livelihood. While the definition of small-scale mining
varies widely, levels of employment are considered to be typically less than 50 workers per
operation. Production is labor intensive with little and quite basic mechanization.

In some countries, the contraction of the mining industry has resulted in mine closures and
consequent severe poverty increases.

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A country’s mining sector can play an important role in poverty reduction strategies if the
approximate share of the mining sector is one or all of the following: (a) > 5–10 percent of
fiscal revenue; (b) > 10– 25 percent of export earnings; (c) > 3–5 percent of the gross
domestic product (GDP); or (d) > 10–15 percent of the industrial workforce. Where any of
these indicators apply to a region or state, the impact of the mining sector on poverty
reduction can have similar significance on a regional scale.

The essence of mining in extracting mineral wealth from the earth is to drive an excavation
or excavations from the surface to the mineral deposit. Normally, these openings into the
earth are meant to allow personnel to enter into the underground deposit.

Note that when the economic profitability of a mineral deposit has been established with
some confidence, ore or ore deposit is preferred as the descriptive term for the mineral
occurrence. However, coal and industrial mineral deposits are often not so designated, even
if their profitability has been firmly established. If the excavation used for mining is entirely
open or operated from the surface, it is termed a surface mine. If the excavation consists of
openings for human entry below the earth’s surface, it is called an underground mine.

Locating and exploring a mineral deposit fall in the general province of geology and the earth
sciences. Mining engineering, already defined, encompasses the proving (with the geologist),
planning, developing, and exploiting of a mineral deposit. The mining engineer may also be
involved with the closure and reclamation of the mine property, although he or she may
share those duties with those in the environmental fields. The fields of processing, refining,
and fabricating are assigned to metallurgy, although there is often some overlap in the
mineral processing area with mining engineering.

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II. Mining project life cycle
Mining is never properly done in isolation, nor is it an entity in itself. It is preceded by
“geologic investigations or mineral exploration” that locate the deposit and economic
analyses that prove it financially feasible. Following extraction of the fuel, industrial mineral,
or metallic ore, the run-of-mine material is generally cleaned or concentrated. This
preparation or beneficiation of the mineral into a higher-quality product is termed mineral
processing. The mineral products so produced may then undergo further concentration,
refinement, or fabrication during conversion, smelting, or refining to provide consumer
products.

The Principal steps in the life cycle of a mineral deposit “exploration and exploitation” may
be briefly summarized as follows:

1) Mineral exploration: to discover a mineral deposit.

2) Feasibility study: to prove its commercial viability.
3) Mine development: establishment of the entire infrastructure.
4) Mining: extraction of ore from the ground.
5) Mineral processing: milling of the ore, separation of ore minerals from gangue
material, separation of the ore minerals into concentrates, e.g. copper concentrate;
separation and refinement of industrial mineral products.
6) Smelting: recovering metals from the mineral concentrates.
7) Refining: purifying the metal.
8) Marketing: shipping the product (or metal concentrate if not smelted and refined at
the mine) to the buyer, e.g. custom smelter, manufacturer.
9) Closure: before a mine has reached the end of its life, there has to be a closure
management plan in place that details and costs the proposed closure strategies.
Significant expenditure could be incurred with clean up and remediation of mining
and smelting sites, the costs of employee retrenchment, and social and community
implications.

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III. Definitions
There are many terms and expressions unique to mining that characterize the field and
identify the user of such terms as a ‘‘mining person.’’ The student of mining is thus advised
to become familiar with all the terms used in mining, particularly those that are peculiar to
either mines or minerals. Most of the mining terminology is introduced in this text where
they are most applicable.

Mine: an excavation made in the earth to extract minerals

Mining: the activity, occupation, and industry concerned with the extraction of minerals

Mining engineering: the practice of applying engineering principles to the development,

planning, operation, closure, and reclamation of mines

Surface mine: a mine in which the ore lies near the surface and can be extracted by removing
the covering layers of rock and soil.

Mineral: a naturally occurring inorganic element or compound having an orderly internal

structure and a characteristic chemical composition, crystal form, and physical properties

Rock: any naturally formed aggregate of one or more types of mineral particles

Economic differences in the nature of mineral deposits is evident in the following terms:

Ore: a mineral deposit that has sufficient utility and value to be mined at a profit.

Gangue: the valueless mineral particles within an ore deposit that must be discarded.

Waste: the material associated with an ore deposit that must be mined to get at the ore and
must then be discarded. Gangue is a particular type of waste.

Metallic ores: those ores of the ferrous metals (iron, manganese, molybdenum, and
tungsten), the base metals (copper, lead, zinc, and tin), the precious metals (gold, silver, the
platinum group metals), and the radioactive minerals (uranium, thorium, and radium).

Nonmetallic minerals (also known as industrial minerals): the nonfuel mineral ores that
are not associated with the production of metals. These include phosphate, potash, halite,
trona, sand, gravel, limestone, sulfur, and many others

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IV. Roles of Mining Geologist

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