Underground hard-rock mining
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Underground hard-rock mining refers to various underground mining techniques used to excavate "hard" minerals, usually those containing metals, such as ore containing gold, silver, iron, copper, zinc,
A 3D diagram of a modern underground mine with shaft access
Decline portal
Door for directing ventilation in an old lead mine. The ore hopper at the front is not part of the ventilation.
Stoping
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Stoping is the process of extracting the desired ore or other mineral from an underground mine, leaving behind an open space known as a stope. Stoping is used when the country rock is sufficiently str
Underground hard-rock mining
…workings and a means of moving large equipment to the workings. Levels are excavated horizontally off the decline or shaft to access the ore body. Stopes are then excavated perpendicular (or near perpendicular) to the level into the ore. There are two principal phases of underground mining: development…
Sketch painting of miners stoping at the Burra Burra Mine, Burra, Australia, 1847.
Stoping with an air drill in an American iron mine in the 20th century (museum exhibit)
A large stope converted into a chapel in a salt mine in Poland – now open to tourists
A large stope in the Treadwell gold mine, Alaska 1908; an example of shrinkage stoping