Seppo Down Under

Mining for Dummies

I work in an industry that is probably one of the most misunderstood in the world. I can't think of any other industry that carries the deep seeded stigma of being a global polluter and basically a vehicle for the raping and pillaging of the Earth (and soon the moon) with total disregard for the care of our host planet. I can empathise with that view, because that's the way things used to be. I don't try to defend the ruin caused by mining 100 years ago, just as I will never stand up in defense of the White Sox throwing the World Series 100 years ago (even though I love the institution of baseball).

The fact is that once the industrial revolution hit, the world got hungry for "stuff". The mining industry was providing the materials to build the world that we know today because the greedy consumer needed cars, televisions, houses, i-pods, STUFF. I live by one simple creed..."If it can't be grown, it has to be mined". Look around you. Everything surrounding you (even the computer that you are reading this from) is full of minerals and metals that have been extracted from the ground by us "ravagers of the planet". I am currently mining silver, lead, and zinc. Each of them will be found right inside you little monitor screen. Formerly, I was involved in gold mining....also in your computer and in pretty much every piece of electronic equipment you own. I have also been a coal miner. Without me, you would not have light every time you flick the swith on your wall (unless you have a solar house, which I support whole -heartedly). The asphalt, concrete, bricks, etc in your house and roadways have all been the product of quarrying aggregates (I also have been intimately involved in that). Even the foods you eat have mined minerals in it, as well as the clothes you wear (dye no longer comes from plants...it's all mineral-based).

It's quite ironic that the largest consumer market in the world (USA) is one one the staunchest opponents to mining. That is because mining and quarrying contribute only a small percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP). Other countries around the world are quite in favour of mining because of the positive economic impact. I live in Australia, where people support the mining industry because 20% of the GDP is associated with mining. Also, the tax revenues from the mining and sales of coal, iron ore, gold, nickel, silver, lead, zinc, etc have given the state, local, and federal government a huge surplus of money to spend on domestic projects. The export market for natural resources is booming because Australia (a country with the same landmass as the USA, but only 10% of the population) is not a domestic sink hole for commercial goods. The USA, on the other hand, has an import trade deficit of about $3billion becuase the almighty consumer wants cheap goods. We mine it or grow it, ship it to China, and they ship it back in finished goods. I'd rather not get into the import-export issue right now, because that's a whole other can of worms that I have opinions about.

So, we mine the natural resources that you'll find in everything around you. Why are we the bad guys? There are several sites around the United States known as "Superfund Sites". The Superfund is a government fund dedicated to cleaning up environmental hazards for which no owner still has legal obligation. Some old mining/milling areas are amongst the list of Superfund sites. Most of these sites have to do with mineral processing, not the mining itself. Heap leaching pads where cyanide and other harmful chemicals were used to extract the gold and silver, and copper/lead smelting are 2 examples of environmentally harmful practices from the past. These methods are still used, but there is an extensive permitting process and environmental checks and balances system in place. If fact, the environmental stronghold on the mining industry has driven mining companies to other countries because the cost of permitting or severence tax is too high to be profitable.

I am all about environmental stewardship. I would like to think most companies are, but you get the "bad egg" now and again and the public has a loooong memory. What year did the Exxon Valdez crash? I personally couldn't tell you, but I remember the scenes of people washing crude oil off of ducks! It's that mentality that has handicapped my beloved mining industry. Tens of thousands of men and women go to work in mines every day to support their families. They return home safely every night, and do it again the next day. But let 1 or worse, a group of miners get trapped, and it's national lockout news. I feel for the families of the miners in W.Va. I have been a coal miner, and every day you think about how many times it could have been you. But, it makes good news to demonize the mining industry, and every idiot that thought me/she knew anything about mining was opening their yaps to slag the mining company for their lax safety attitude and their safety voilations. I was livid listening the the news, just hoping they would give me and the thousands of other educated miners a bit of info we could use to piece together the situation. Instead, they feed the masses with legal talk and bullshit so that people get pissed off and the unions gain that little bit more control. We had a similar situation recently in Tasmania. 2 miners were trapped in an underground gold mine, and the point man for the interviews was the friggin' union rep for the miners union!! I've gotta move on, I'm getting bent out of shape here....

So where was I going with this blog? Oh yeah," mining for dummies". Since so few of the public really know anything about mining, I though I'd give you a few vocabulary terms to impress your friends with. The list will be abbreviated, but should give a a little bit of lingo to apply in several areas of the mining industry.

Heading/drive - an underground opening used for travel or access. The term is used in both metalliferous mining and coal mining.

Pit- open hole on the surface where minerals are extracted. Used in metalliferous and coal mining.

Dragline - large crane with a bucket used for moving overburden (dirt covering coal seam)

Shovel - large electric or hydraulic shovel used to move material to either uncover ore (or coal), or to load trucks with ore or coal

Stope - underground opening where metalliferous ore is being extracted

Loader/LHD/Bogger - underground equipment used to move ore from stope to trucks or material load-out stations.

Hoist/winder - cable elevator used to move ore/coal or man/materials from the surface to the underground or vice versa

Shaft/winze/rise - vertical or near vertical opening in underground mines used for passage of ore/men/materials/air

Longwall - continuous coal mining method where a long panel of coal is developed and cut with a shearer and shield line.

Continuous miner - coal/soft rock mining machine that cuts material with a rotating cutting drum (also called a roadheader or mobile miner). Used both underground or surface.

Cap/bonnet/bucket/shell - miners hard hat

Well, that's the starter list. I hope you can all sleep a bit easier tonight on your pillow with crushed limestone and silicate-poly filler (more industrial mineral content that you probably didn't know was there). Make sure to leave a night-light on so my brothers and sisters-at-arms can keep mining that coal to give you electricity!!