What is the description of open pit mining?
Open-pit mining, also known as opencast mining, is a surface mining technique that extracts minerals from an open pit in the ground. This surface mining technique is used when mineral or ore deposits are found relatively close to the surface of the earth.
What is open pit mining Short answer?
Open pit mining is defined as the method of extracting any near surface ore deposit using one or more horizontal benches to extract the ore while dumping overburden and tailings (waste) at a specified disposal site outside the final pit boundary.
Why are open pit mines bad?
There are also significant health effects for humans. Studies from the Appalachia region of the U.S., an area which is practically synonymous with coal mining, show that the dust has high levels of silica. The surrounding area had higher rates of cancer, heart and lung disease, kidney disease, and birth defects.
What are the pros of open pit mining?
Advantages of open-pit mining include:
- Powerful trucks and shovels can be used to move large volumes of rock.
- Equipment not restricted by the size of the opening you are working in.
- Faster production.
- Lower cost to mine means lower grades of ore are economic to mine.
Is open pit mining safe?
Open-pit mining is much safer than shaft mining. In underground mining, the threat of a cave-in or release of toxic gas is a constant concern. When shaft mining was the most common method of ore extraction, thousands died in cave-ins, gas events and accidents involving equipment.
What type of mining is open pit mining?
Open-pit mining, or open-cast mining is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow. This form of mining differs from extractive methods that require tunneling into the earth, such as long wall mining.
What is the dirtiest type of mining?
The Nation’s Top Polluter According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory, metal mining is the nation’s #1 toxic polluter.
Is open-pit mining good for the environment?
This type of mining is particularly damaging to the environment because strategic minerals are often only available in small concentrations, which increases the amount of ore needed to be mined. Environmental hazards are present during every step of the open-pit mining process.
What is the difference between an open-pit mine?
A quarry is the same thing as an open-pit mine from which minerals are extracted. The only trivial difference between the two is that open-pit mines that produce building materials and dimension stone are commonly referred to as quarries.
Is open pit mining safer?
Does open-pit mining affect environment?
Mining is widely regarded as having adverse effects on environment of both magnitude and diversity. Some of these effects include erosion, formation of sinkhole, biodiversity loss and contamination of groundwater by chemical from the mining process in general and open-pit mining in particular.
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