# METHODS OF MINING
You all know that mineral resources are non-renewable and their distribution is not uniform
around the world. It is evident that mining of the minerals should be done in a sustainable
manner so that little waste is generated and the resources are not depleted. So, methods of
mining and its efficiency forms an important part of study while studying minerals and you
should know about it. First let us understand what is mining.
In simple words mining is the process used to:
extract valuable resources from the earth;
acquire any resource that cannot be grown or fabricated through artificial means; or
used to extract those resources which are non-renewable just like fossil fuels and minerals, etc.
To sum up, mining is the extraction from the earth of valuable minerals or other geological
materials, usually from a deposit of ore, lode, vein, seam, reef or placer. These deposits form an
economically interesting mineralised package for the miner,
There are four main methods of mining. They are:
#Surface Mining
#Placer Mining
#In-Situ Mining
#Surface Mining
As the name suggests, surface mining is done to extract minerals that are close to the surface
of earth. Thus, it is done for those minerals which are fairly shallow deposits and can be easily
exploited. Due to this the mining of these minerals involves less expenditure and so the
minerals have lesser value or are non-precious. Some of the common minerals extracted using
surface mining are coal, iron and bauxite. Surface mining involves removal of plant life, soil and
potential bedrock to be able to access resource deposits. It is done in two different methods of
which one is open-pit mining and the other one is strip mining.
Open pit mining involves digging out rocks to form an open pit or borrow pit,
from which resources are then extracted. However, in this case, the sides of the pits are
generally terraced or stepped so as to reduce the risk of collapse of side walls. Refer to Fig.
12.1 to see an open pit mining. You will notice that in the picture the side walls of the mine is
terraced as mentioned. Besides, since these mines are open, they may face the problem of
temporary flooding
due to rainwater accumulation and may turn into a lake. So to avoid any such problems, proper
water management has to be done. Open-pit mines are workable till they are economically
profitable, that is either it is having ample mineral. Various factors make the mine non-profitable.
When this occurs, the open pit is often modified to become a landfill for solid wastes..
Minerals and Mining Activities
#An Open Pit Minig
Strip mining is mostly used to extract shallow, "bedded" deposits, where a mineral layer is
covered by a layer of soft topsoil and weathered rocks. The relatively soft top layer of earth is
stripped off either by a dragline or industrial stripping surface to reveal ore or seams below. For
example, sometimes coal mining involves removal or stripping off the top of a mountain to reach
deposits of ore at depth. Refer to Fig. 122 to get an idea about trip
