Dictionary of Mining Terms

Dictionary of Mining, Mineral and Related Terms
Courtesy of EduMine – Online Professional Development, Continuing Education and Technical Reference for Mining

List of official definitions of mining terms obtained from the Ontario Mining Act and Regulations thereunder.

Advanced exploration means the excavation of an exploratory shaft, adit or decline, the extraction of prescribed material in excess of the prescribed quantity, whether the extraction involves the disturbance or movement of prescribed material located above or below the surface of the ground, the installation of a mill for test purposes or any other prescribed work and where material means rock, ore or any other substance excavated during the process of developing, mining, evaluating or testing any mineral or mineral deposit, but does not include excavated overburden;

Closure plan means a plan to rehabilitate a site or mine hazard that has been prepared in the prescribed manner and filed in accordance with this Act and that includes provision in the prescribed manner of financial assurance to the Crown for the performance of the closure plan requirements;

Crown pillar means a rock mass of variable geometry that is situated above the uppermost underground workings of a mine and that serves to ensure permanently or temporarily the stability of surface elements and underground workings;

Mine, when used as a noun, includes,

(a) any opening or excavation in, or working of, the ground for the purpose of winning any mineral or mineral bearing substance,

(b) all ways, works, machinery, plant, buildings and premises below or above the ground relating to or used in connection with the activity referred to in clause (a),

(c) any roasting or smelting furnace, concentrator, mill, work or place used for or in connection with washing, crushing, grinding, sifting, reducing, leaching, roasting, smelting, refining or treating any mineral or mineral bearing substance, or conducting research on them,

(d) tailings, wasterock, stockpiles of ore or other material, or any other prescribed substances, or the lands related to any of them, and

(e) mines that have been temporarily suspended, rendered inactive, closed out or abandoned, but does not include any prescribed classes of plant, premises or works;

Mine, when used as a verb, means the performance of any work in or about a mine, as defined in its noun sense, except preliminary exploration;

Mine Hazard means any feature of a mine, or any disturbance of the ground, that has not been rehabilitated to the prescribed standard;

Mine Production means mining that is producing any mineral or mineral-bearing substance for immediate sale or stockpiling for future sale, and includes the development of a mine for such purposes;

Minerals means all naturally occurring metallic and non-metallic minerals, including natural gas, petroleum, coal, salt, quarry and pit material, gold, silver and all rare and precious minerals and metals, but does not include sand, gravel and peat;

Mining Claim means a parcel of land, including land under water, that has been staked and recorded in accordance with this Act and the regulations;

Mining Lands includes,

(a) the lands and mining rights patented or leased under or by authority of a statute, regulation or order in council, respecting mines, minerals or mining,

(b) lands or mining rights located, staked out, used or intended to be used for mining purposes, and

(c) surface rights granted solely for mining purposes;

Mining Rights means the right to minerals on, in or under any land;

Preliminary Exploration means any exploration that is not advanced exploration.

Progressive Rehabilitation means rehabilitation done continually and sequentially during the entire period that a project or mine hazard exists;

Prospecting means the investigating of, or searching for, minerals;

Rehabilitate means measures, including protective measures, taken in accordance with the prescribed standards to treat a site or mine hazard so that the use or condition of the site,

Surface Rights means every right in land other than the mining rights;

Surface Stripping means the removal of overburden to expose bedrock or other material.

Valuable Mineral in Place means a vein, lode or deposit of mineral in place appearing at the time of discovery to be of such a nature and containing in the part thereof then exposed such kind and quantity of mineral or minerals in place, other than limestone, marble, clay, marl, peat or building stone, as to make it probable that the vein, lode or deposit is capable of being developed into a producing mine likely to be workable at a profit.