petanque

en-noun

petanque (countable and uncountable, plural petanques)

First-discovered mine in the District; gave much "petanque" (stephanite, or silver glance).

1883, Charles Bunker Dahlgren, Historic Mines of Mexico:

There are other openings on the ledge between the ends of these claims, but all are small and filled with debris, but it is an interesting and notable fact that all the workings show the rich sulphide of silver, or petanque ore […]

1902, Reports Mining Engineers, Cieneguita Copper Company, page 26:

Petanque, or "gray copper ore" (tetrahedrite) is the sort for which the Mexican prospector is constantly on the lookout.

1906, Engineering and Mining Journal, volume 82, page 629:

(mining, dated, countable, uncountable) Any of various ores, including forms of silver sulfide (such as stephanite) and the copper ore tetrahedrite.


beneficiate

en-verb

beneficiate (third-person singular simple present beneficiates, present participle beneficiating, simple past and past participle beneficiated)

beneficiates (present singular third-person)
beneficiating (participle present)
beneficiated (participle past)
beneficiated (past)

From Spanish beneficiar (“to benefit, to work mines”).


swallet

Compare German Schwall (“a sea swell”), from schwellen (“to swell”). See English swell.

(UK, dialect, dated, mining, tin mining) Water breaking in upon the miners at their work.


rejig

en-verb

rejig (third-person singular simple present rejigs, present participle rejigging, simple past and past participle rejigged)

rejigs (present singular third-person)
rejigging (participle present)
rejigged (participle past)
rejigged (past)

The verb is derived from re- (prefix meaning ‘again, anew’) + jig (“to move briskly; to move with jerks or vibrations”). The noun is derived from the verb.

prefix

(mining) To separate or sort (ore) again in a jigger or sieve.

seuloa uudelleen

to separate or sort (ore) again in a jigger or sieve


gob up

en-verb

gob up (third-person singular simple present gobs up, present participle gobbing up, simple past and past participle gobbed up)

gobs up (present singular third-person)
gobbing up (participle present)
gobbed up (participle past)
gobbed up (past)

Packers did the packing and stopping ; they were employed to pack up at nights. I cannot give you names, because we were changing every week. I think one man's name was William Abraham. They came in with the rubbish every night to gob up.

1879, Great Britain Parliament House of Commons, Reports from Commissioners - Volume 18, page 24:

There is no waste dump at the surface, and none of the contents of the lode as yet broken down have been so poor in silver as to be thrown away or used for gobbing up.

1885, Samuel Franklin Emmons, George Ferdinand Becker, Statistics and Technology of the Precious Metals:

Attempts have been made on several occasions to avoid the digging out by gobbing up the roads in the district and putting stoppings at intervals, the treatment being extended for 100 yards or more.

1913, John Harger, Coal, and the prevention of explosions and fires in mines, page 161:

Wider pillars usually provided better security for stalls and headings and when an area was worked out they might be "robbed" of additional coal before the stalls were finally abandoned and packed up ("gobbed up") with waste.

2004, Martin R. Connop Price, Pembrokeshire: the forgotten coalfield, →ISBN:

(mining) To pack or fill with waste material.


check weigher

(mining, historical) A person employed by the miners to check the weight of the mined material and thus ensure the proper wages were paid.


pentice

From Middle English pentis, pendize, and other spellings; from Anglo-Norman pentiz, aphetic of Old French apentis (“appendage, attached building”), from Medieval Latin appendicium, from Latin appendo (“to hang”). Doublet of appentice and penthouse.

der

(mining) An unexcavated portion of a shaftway, intended to afford protection from falling debris to workers at the bottom of the shaft during certain stages of mining.


thill

From Middle English thille, thylle, from Old English þille (“board; floorboard; plank; stake; pole”), from Proto-West Germanic *þilljā, from Proto-Germanic *þiljǭ (“board; floorboard; deck”), from Proto-Indo-European *tel- (“plank; board”). Cognate with Dutch deel, German Low German Deel (> English deal (“plank”)), German Diele, Swedish tilja, Icelandic þilja. Akin to English theal (“board; plank”). Doublet of deal.

der

One by one, Janki leading, they crept into the old gallery – a six-foot way with a scant four feet from thill to roof.

1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘At Twenty-two’, In Black and White, Folio Society, published 2005, page 405:

(mining) The shallow stratum of underclay that lies under a seam of coal; the bottom of a coal-seam.


spad

(mining) A nail one or two inches long, of iron, brass, tin, or tinner iron, with a hole through the flattened head, used to mark stations in underground surveying.


fourneau

en-noun

fourneau (plural fourneaus or fourneaux)

The quantity of powder to charge the fourneau depends on the density and tenacity of the soil in which it is to be made

1809, Louis de Tousard, American Artillerist's Companion:

(mining, archaic) The chamber of a mine in which the powder is placed.


quarryman

He then described how a quarryman had bought the mineral rights of an estate at Melkridge, on the route of the Roman Wall, for twenty-one years.

1981, John Sheail, Rural Conservation in Inter-war Britain:

A man involved in quarrying (mining for stone).


gobbing

This objection , however , applies still more to the case of a road which has solid on one side , and gobbing on the other.

1850, John Phillips, Report on the Ventilation of Mines and Collieries:

(mining) The refuse thrown back into the excavation after removing the coal; gob stuff.


stowing

stowing (usually uncountable, plural stowings)

To render these stoppings effective, they must be built of brick or stone, and plastered with lime, and also supported at one or both sides by stowings of rubbish to provide against the effect of explosions.

1848, Matthias Dunn, A treatise on the winning and working of collieries:

(mining) A method of working in which the waste is packed into the space formed by excavating the vein.


iron ore

iron ore (countable and uncountable, plural iron ores)

(mining) A mineral deposit from which iron can be viably extracted.


underlayer

(mining) A perpendicular shaft sunk to cut the lode at any required depth.


shoad

From Middle English shode, schode, from Old English ġescēad (“separation, distinction, discretion, understanding, argument, reason, reckoning, account, statement, accuracy, art, manner, method”), from Proto-Germanic *skaidą (“separation, distinction”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to cut, divide, separate”). Related to Old English scādan (“to separate, divide, part, make a line of separation between”). More at shed.

cog

The earliest mining consisted simply in collecting shoads — a means of gaining a livelihood not yet totally discarded.

1915, Lionel Clive Ball, The Etheridge Mineral Field, page 37:

Eluvial wolfram was known from the Mount Carbine area 50 miles northwest from Cairns before 1895, but the black shoads were at first thought to be manganese (hence the name Manganese Creek for the little creek at the village).

1968, Australia. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics, Bulletin - Issue 84, page 203:

Where the fynding of these affordeth a tempting likelihood, the tynners go to work casting up trenches before them, in depth 5 or 6 foote, more or lesse, as the loose ground went, and 3 or 4 in breadth, gathering up such shoad as this turning of the earth doth offer to their sight.

1978, Robert Hunt, A Historical Sketch of British Mining, page 63:

As mentioned above, many of the important tin streams are well away from any outcropping tin lodes, hence shoad, so Carew oversimplified his account.

1986, Roger David Penhallurick, Tin in Antiquity, page 164:

In search of alluvial shoad, the miners studied the landscape, the color and nature of earths, and embedded rocks beside streams and rivers.

2005, Warren Alexander Dym, Divining science, page 143:

Before developing a streamworks, the quality, depth and lateral extent of the shoad would have to be tested through strategically placed excavations.

2008, Peter C. Herring, Peter Rose, Nicholas Johnson, Bodmin Moor: An Archaeological Survey - Volume 2, page 31:

(mining) Loose fragments (often of metal ore) mixed with earth.


shoad

en-verb

shoad (third-person singular simple present shoads, present participle shoading, simple past and past participle shoaded)

shoads (present singular third-person)
shoading (participle present)
shoaded (participle past)
shoaded (past)

In shoading it is necessary to distinguish between heavy and light ores, and between friable and hard materials.

1879, William Bailes, Student's Guide to the Principles of Coal & Metal Mining, page 89:

It is manifest from the position of the neck that the great mass of material removed by denudation in forming the hollow in which it is seen exposed, must have been washed down the stream in question, and had diamonds occurred in that mass it is highly improbable that none should have been left in the bed and banks of the stream where their existence would certainly have been discovered by the old diamond seekers in former generations, who would have “shoaded” up the stream and have inevitably reached the neck.

1889, Records of the Geological Survey of India, page 41:

Until about 1875, the ancient methods of prospecting for a deposit whose presence was suspected from evidence such as the above were still in common use. they included shoading, trenching, and hushing.

1967, Charles Joseph Singer, A History of Technology - Volume 4, page 67:

(mining) To seek for a vein or mineral deposit by following a shode, or tracing them to whence they derived.

Among the fragments shoaded down the sloping surface of the ground are pieces of edgewise intraformational conglomerate.

1941, Royal Society of South Australia, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia, page 307:

The discovery of davidite at Radium Hill was made in 1906, by Mr. A. J. Smith, who mistook the black shoaded mineral for tin ore.

1958, Australian Atomic Energy Commission, Australian Atomic Energy Symposium, 1958, page 44:

Several outcrops were originally pegged in the hope that the shoaded black mineral would prove to be tin ore.

2013, Arthur John Gaskin, H. R. Samson, Ceramic and Refractory Clays of South Australia, page 7:

They are to be seen projecting in relief from the outcrops and shoaded on the surface.

1911, Sir Douglas Mawson, Walter Howchin, Chiastolites from Bimbowrie, South Australia, page 196:


coalface

(mining) The surface of coal exposed by mining, or a part of a coal seam that is currently being mined.

louhintapinta

(mining) The end of a drift, entry, or room in a coal mine.


off-handed

en-adj

off-handed (comparative more off-handed, superlative most off-handed)

more off-handed (comparative)
most off-handed (superlative)


airshaft

(mining) A passage supplying ventilation into a mine tunnel or other underground facility.


crutter

(mining) A worker who drills blasting holes, prepares the explosive charge, and removes blasted rock.


opencast

Britain's leading green commentator, George Monbiot, gives the head of the Campaign to Protect Rural England an unforgettable grilling, asking why the countryside watchdog opposes windfarms - but not opencast coal mines

2009 January 7, Ian Traynor, “Europe's plan for alternative pipeline faces big problems”, in The Guardian:

(chiefly British) Of or pertaining to strip mining, in which material is removed from a surface that has been exposed


deads

If there are no “deads” brought by hand the filling does not shrink from the back of the gunnie, but deads soon settle and lose a tenth of the height.

1911, Mining Journal, volume 94, page 811:

(mining) The substances that enclose the ore on every side.


isohume

From iso- + the base of humid. A pseudo-classical coinage.

(mining, rare) An isoline connecting places in which the coal seam has equal moisture content.


stoping

en-noun

stoping (countable and uncountable, plural stopings)

(mining) The removal of the desired ore from an underground mine, leaving behind an open space known as a stope.


fettler

(mining, historical) An ostler; one who looks after the horses in a mine.


hoggan-bag

From hoggan (“pork pasty”), which see for more.

[page 39:] Baccy, with cowals for the chowters, Saalt pilchers, and some ' taties, Eggs, clidgy, traade, and hoganbags, Gowks, sparables, and lattice.
[page 45:] When, who but your man com a tott'ring along, / So drunk that I thoft fath, he'd fall in the doong. A let tumble hes hoggan bag jist by the dour, So I cal'd to the man, as one woud to be shoar. Says I, "Martin, dost hire, cheel, tak up tha bag."

1846, William Sandys, Specimens of Cornish Provincial Dialect:

To his work he carries from the surface his keg of water, his “hoggan-bag,” and a tin, carelessly slung over his shoulder, which is full of charges[…]

(Cornwall, obsolete) A miner's bag used to carry provisions.


pulsator

(mining) A jigging machine used in the South African diamond industry.


afterdamp

afterdamp (usually uncountable, plural afterdamps)

(mining) Suffocating gases present in a coal mine after an explosion caused by firedamp, consisting of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen, and sometimes hydrogen sulfide.


monton

(mining) A heap of ore; a mass undergoing the process of amalgamation.

(mining, historical) A Mexican unit of weight for ore, varying from 1,800 to 3,200 Spanish pounds.


floran

(mining) tin ore scarcely perceptible in the stone


footwall

(mining) The under wall of an enclosed vein.


sturt

Rossiter W[orthington] Raymond
w:Rossiter W. Raymond

(mining) A bargain in tribute mining by which the tributor profits.


auget

From French, diminutive of auge (“trough”), from Latin alveus (“hollow”), from alvus (“belly”).

(mining) A priming tube connecting the charge chamber with the gallery, or place where the slow match is applied.


headstock

It was a beautiful day. At Brinsley pit the white steam melted slowly in the sunshine of a soft blue sky; the wheels of the headstocks twinkled high up; the screen, shuffling its coal into the trucks, made a busy noise.

1913, DH Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 6:


brakesman

Someone who operates the winch in a mine.

Leisurely we moved forward--reached the head of the train--then Andrews, Brown our engineer, and Knight, who also could run an engine, leaped on the locomotive; Alfred Wilson took the top of the cars as brakesman, and the remainder of us clambered into the foremost baggage car, which, with two others, had been previously uncoupled from the hinder part of the train.

1863, William Pittenger, Daring and Suffering:

And some time after becoming naturalized, in one of his letters, he wrote that he was a brakesman on the Great Western R.R., (in Canada--promoted from the U.G.R.R.,) the result of being under the protection of the British Lion.

1872, William Still, The Underground Railroad:

The young man on the ranch later said he was tenant in charge of the place for Mitchell Robertson, who owned it, but who was then working on the train as a brakesman out of Calgary.

1921, R.G. MacBeth, Policing the Plains:

[...] their speed (which was not supposed to exceed 10 m.p.h. normally, and less when the train was heavy or the weather was bad) was regulated by brakesmen known as "bank-riders."

1942 May-June, “Cable Operation at Liverpool and London”, in Railway Magazine, page 177:

When the trains meet, the points of the loop are operated from the lineside by the trainmen or brakesmen specially carried for this job.

1959 October, J. N. Westwood, “The Railways of Canada: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 500:

A brakeman; a railroad employee responsible for a train's brakes, couplings etc.


roke

Unclear; perhaps related to dialect rauk, rawk, a northern English dialectal word for a mark, including e.g. a defect on cloth.

of which custom the aforesaid John Parlby being not in the least ignorant, on the 20th day of Jun, in the second year of the reign of our Lord the present King, at the same pit, received and had a whole roke of coals, value 18d., by the delivery of the said Richard, together with a sign for one whole roke, according to the custom aforesaid;

1889, “Action for Breach of a Custom observed in delivering Coal at Wollaton Pit, 1549, April 1”, in Records of the Borough of Nottingham: 1547-1625, page 11:

In 1450 certain lands at Codnor were exchanged subject to the condition that one of the parites should receive yearly three roke of coal if any 'myne of cole' were got.

1907, William Page, The Victoria History of the County of Derby - Volume 2, page 351:

Account of coal getting, from 13 February to 24 December, 17 Henry VIII., giving the quantity got by each collier week by week, in the following form: “ L. Lambe gatt xiii roke

1924, The Mining Engineer - Volumes 66-67, page 226:

(UK, dialect, mining) A measurement of coal ore.


karn

Borrowed from Cornish [Term?]. Doublet of cairn.

Besides the single bason above-mention'd, I could not perceive one in all the rocks; but in a Karn below, overlooking, and it's sides almost perpendicular to the sea, I saw many furrows and clefts crossing the surface of the upper rocks; this lower-most Karn is call'd in the Cornish tongue Karn-a-wethen, that is, the Tree-Karn […]

1754, William Borlase, Observations on the Antiquities, Historical and Monumental, of the County of Cornwall, page 132:

This gorseddau lies opposite to a karn of rocks, which is called the Cheese-wring.

1816, Richard Polwhele, The History of Cornwall, Civil, Military, Religious, Architectural, Agricultural, Commercial, Biographical, and Miscellaneous, page 30:

This quoit was brought from a karn about a furlong distance, near which is another cromlech, not so large.

1817, Charles Sandoe Gilbert, A Historical Survey of the County of Cornwall, page 175:


scall

scall (countable and uncountable, plural scalls)

Compare Icelandic skalli (“a bald head”), English scald.


rockburst

A sudden, violent collapse of rock under stress, especially in a mine


patcher

(mining, historical) The driver's assistant or lackey in a team of miners.


attle

(mining) Rubbish or refuse consisting of broken rock inholding little or no ore; especially, the worthless rock left over once the ore has been selected.


tinner

The stannary courts of Devonshire and Cornwall, for the administration of justice among the tinners therein, are also courts of record.

1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC:


veinstone

veinstone (countable and uncountable, plural veinstones)

The effect of this mixture is to reduce the per centage of copper, which is further depressed by the impossibility of separating, even by the most perfect machinery, all the adherent rock and veinstone from the ore.

2011, Robert Kane, The Industrial Resources of Ireland, page 183:


undercast

undercast (countable and uncountable, plural undercasts)

From Middle English undercasten, equivalent to under- + cast.

(mining) An air-passage crossing a road in a mine by means of an airtight box or channel beneath it.


bucker

(mining) A broad-headed hammer used in bucking ore.


offtake

offtake (countable and uncountable, plural offtakes)

From Middle English oftaken, equivalent to off- + take.

(mining) The removal of oil (or an industrial chemical) from a storage facility.


brattice

Inherited from Middle English bretage, bretace, from Old French bretesce, bretesche, breteske, from Late Latin brittisca.

A practice then prevailed of blasting without nicking the side of the place which still continues and of conducting the current of air too far by means of brattice, to both of which practices I raised a strong objection. They admitted their inability to make the men nick the coal as they formerly did and thought the application of brattice could not be properly defined, but that it should be left to the discretion of the manager of each particular mine as to the distance openings should be made apart between the intake and return air courses.

1872 February 28, Peter Higson, “[Mines. Reports of the Inspectors of Mines, to Her Majesty’s Secretary of State, for the Year 1871. Chapter 653.] Report of the Working of the Mines Inspection Act (23 & 24 Vict. c. 151.) in the West Lancashire and North Wales District, during the Year ended 31st December 1871.”, in Reports from Commissioners: Twenty-two Volumes. […], volume XVI, London: Printed by George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswode, […], for Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, →OCLC, page 58:

(mining) A wooden partition in a coal mine.


jackhole

As soon as the machine is well under way, the runner determines about where the next rear jack-hole will come, and has the cut made and ready for receiving the jack by the time the machine has finished its cut.

1907, Rock Boring, Rock Drilling, Explosives and Blasting, Coal-Cutting Machinery, Timbering, Timber trees, Trackwork, page 48:

Trout glided into the shadows, feeding upon grey moths, while in the jackhole beneath the red clay hollows big pike stirred lazily.

It was therefore decided to drive one jackhole through to the surface, and after passing through the inferior coal, the alluvium was met with, and found to be so light and loose in character that it ran through at this point to the surface. The jackhole had therefore to be abandoned, and no further attempts were made to pierce the strata.

1913, Institution of Mining Engineers (Great Britain), The Mining Engineer, page 379:

The particular work he was doing when the accident occurred was digging with pick and shovel a jackhole under one of the track rails to prepare a foundation for a track-lifting implement.

1927, Reports of cases determined in the district courts - Volume 74, page 22:

Finally, Spindrick came to a jackhole with the cover off and protected by a circular barrier.

(mining, archaic) A hole that is created using a jack or wedge.


brusher

(mining, historical) A person employed to cut or blast the roof or floor of a roadway and so give more height.

(mining, historical) A person who gets the mineral down by blasting in the working face after it has been "holed".


elvan

en-adj

elvan (comparative more elvan, superlative most elvan)

more elvan (comparative)
most elvan (superlative)

From a Cornish word, perhaps Cornish elven, elvan (“spark”) because the hard rock could be struck to spark fire.

an elvan course

(mining) Of or relating to certain veins of feldspathic or porphyritic rock crossing metalliferous veins in the mining districts of Cornwall.


elvan

en-noun

elvan (countable and uncountable, plural elvans)

(mining) The rock of an elvan vein, or the vein itself.


underhole

en-verb

underhole (third-person singular simple present underholes, present participle underholing, simple past and past participle underholed)

underholes (present singular third-person)
underholing (participle present)
underholed (participle past)
underholed (past)

(mining) To cut away or mine out the lower portion of a coal seam or a part of the underlay so as to win or get the overlying coal.


facework

en-noun

facework (usually uncountable, plural faceworks)

(mining) work done at the face, such as the coalface


knockstone

(mining) A block upon which ore is broken up.


slickens

(US, dialect, mining) The lighter soil of hydraulic mines.


undercutter

The top and bottom portions of the machine are exactly alike and it may consequently be turned over and employed as an overcutter as well as an undercutter.

In addition to its work on longwall faces, the A.B. Fifteen has been adapted for shortwall work either as undercutter or as overcutter, particular care having been taken to give it increased manoauvrability by the provision of special pulleys, and increased mobility by the addition of a tilting underframe.

1960, Colliery Guardian Overseas, page 50:

(mining) A device for cutting into rock walls from below.


country rock

country rock (countable and uncountable, plural country rocks)

After driving, and opening the reef for some distance, it turned under, and completely pinched out in country rock.

1912 Queensland Annual Report of the Under Secretary for Mines for 1911. Brisbane, Australia. p. 69

(mining, countable) Rock that surrounds reefs or lodes of mined minerals, forming the walls and floors of quarries, or through which mine tunnels are driven.


underlooker

(mining, historical) A daily inspector of a mine.


underviewer

(mining, historical) An underlooker; the manager responsible for a colliery in the absence of the viewer.


lurry

(mining) Alternative form of lorry (“type of cart”)


astel

From Middle English astelle (“piece of wood”), from Old French astele (“splinter, shaving”). Compare Latin astula, diminutive of assis (“board”).

inh

(mining, dialectal) An arch or ceiling of boards placed above the workers' heads in a mine.


jadding

(mining) holing (undercutting a bed of coal)


jinny road

Compare gin (“an engine”), ginny-carriage.

Edward H[enry] Knight
w:Edward H. Knight

(mining) An inclined road in a coal mine, on which loaded cars descend by gravity, drawing up empty ones.


vanning

en-noun

vanning (countable and uncountable, plural vannings)

(mining) A process by which ores are washed on a shovel, or in a vanner.


gunnies

Borrowed from Cornish gonis (“gunnies”).

At the mines of Bruay the gunnies are filled by rubbish from the surface, carried down through pipes by a current of water.

(Cornwall, mining) A vacant space left in the ground after a lode has been mined.


creaze

(mining) The tin ore that collects in the central part of the washing pit or buddle.


hudge

(mining) A bucket for hoisting coal or ore.


kennel coal

kennel coal (usually uncountable, plural kennel coals)


metalman

(mining, historical) A workman who takes the roof down to give the miners more height to work in.


ginging

(mining) The lining of a shaft with stones or bricks to prevent collapse.


loob

loob (countable and uncountable, plural loobs)

From Cornish lūb (“slime, sludge”), or from lubricant?

In like manner they order the wast ^([sic]) tin that falls hindmost in the Buddle and wreck, which they call the tail, as also that which falls into the loob, pit or sump, viz. washing and sifting of it, which they call stripping of it, returning the rough and course ^([sic]) to the stamps, and the finer to the wreck.

1674, John Ray, A Collection of English Words Not Generally Used:

(mining, dialect) The clay or slime washed from tin ore in dressing.


gurt

Origin obscure. Possibly a metathesis of gutter.

unk

obscure

(mining) A gutter or channel for water, hewn out of the bottom of a working drift.


standage

en-noun

standage (countable and uncountable, plural standages)

(mining) A reservoir in which water accumulates at the bottom of a mine.


witts

the clean witts contain native oxide of tin, black or rosin-tin, and wolfram[…]

1852, Charles Tomlinson, Cyclopædia of Useful Arts, Mechanical and Chemical:

(mining, UK, dialect, Cornwall) Tin ore freed from earthy matter by stamping.


stull

Related to German Stollen (“stull”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *stullô (“support, post, beam”), but its route into English is uncertain. Perhaps borrowed from Middle High German stolle. Doublet of stollen. Compare also stum.

der

(UK, dialect, mining) A framework of timber covered with boards to support rubbish or to protect miners from falling stones.


gunnie

If there are no “deads” brought by hand the filling does not shrink from the back of the gunnie, but deads soon settle and lose a tenth of the height.

1911, Mining Journal, volume 94, page 811:

(mining) The space left by the removal of ore.


tramble

en-verb

tramble (third-person singular simple present trambles, present participle trambling, simple past and past participle trambled)

trambles (present singular third-person)
trambling (participle present)
trambled (participle past)
trambled (past)

When this Buddle grows full , we take it up ; here distinguishing again the Forehead from the Middle and Tails ; which are Trambled over again : But the Forebead of this with the Forebead of the Launder , are Trambled in a second Buddle

1670, The Philosophical Transactions and Collections:

(mining, transitive) To wash (tin ore, etc.) with a shovel in a frame fitted for the purpose.


hodder

(mining, obsolete) A coal miner who hauls hods from the workface


midfeather

(mining) A support for the centre of a tunnel.


byard

(historical) A piece of leather crossing the breast, used by the men who drag sledges in coal mines.


shear-cake

(mining) A counterweighted refractory slab used as a gate or door to a small furnace or oven.


stallman

(mining, historical) A subcontractor in charge of a stall or working place.


tributer

1849-1850, John Weale, Rudimentary Dictionary of Terms used in Architecture, Building, and Engineering
Tributers generally work in gangs, and have a limited portion of a lode set them, called a tribute pitch, beyond which they are not permitted to work, and for which they receive a certain portion of the ore, or so much per pound, as agreed upon, of the value of what they raise.

(mining) A miner who is paid in a certain portion of the ore, or its value.


Frue vanner

From its inventor W. B. Frue, Superintendent of the Silver Islet Mine, Ontario, Canada.

(mining) A kind of conveyor belt on which ore is concentrated by a current of water; a kind of buddle.


soam

Uncertain. Perhaps from a variant of seam.

(mining) A short rope used to pull the tram in a coal-mine.


sloam

(mining) A layer of earth between coal seams.


thurst

(mining) The ruins of the fallen roof in a coal mine, resulting from the removal of the pillars and stalls.


mundic

The ores and minerals to be treated according to my invention are those containing sulphur, particularly mundics, or iron pyrites, copper ores, lead ores, tin ores, zinc ores […]

1870, Oliver Byrne, Ernest Spon, Spons' Dictionary of Engineering, Civil, Mechanical, Military, and Naval:

(mining, UK, dialect, Cornwall) iron pyrite or arsenic pyrite


hogger pump

(mining) The forepump in the pit of a mine.


flucan

en-noun

flucan (countable and uncountable, plural flucans)

(mining, archaic) Soft clay-like matter found in or surrounding the vein.


driftway

(mining) A drift, or horizontal passage in a mine.


burghmaster

(UK, mining, historical) An officer who directs and lays out the meres or boundaries for the workers.


maundril

The cutting maundrils taper directly from the centre to the points, the holing maundrils are somewhat stronger and bluffer.

1865, Hilary Bauerman, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Geological, Mining, and Metallurgical Models in the Museum of Practical Geology, page 27:

(historical, mining) A pick with two prongs, used for prying.


craunch

(mining) A portion of a stratum or vein left in excavating to support the roof.


jud

(mining) A mass of coal holed or undercut so as to be thrown down by wedges.


goaf

(mining) That part of a mine from which the mineral has been partially or wholly removed.

1869, George Fowler, On a Method of Abstracting Explosive Gas from the Goaves of Coal Mines, in Transactions, Volume 18, North of England Institute of Mining Engineers, page 160,
In an operation of this kind, primarily for the purpose of extracting the gas out of the goaves, but also with a view to drain the solid coal, it is clear that it is desirable, as much as possible, to draw as directly as possible from the goaf.

1874, William Hopton, The Prevention of Catastrophes in Mines, in The Hermon Prize Essays: Essays on the Prevention of Explosions and Accidents in Coal Mines, W. M. Hutchings, page 57,
Hundreds of lives have been sacrificed by sudden outbursts of gas from the floor and goaf, and miners are constantly working in jeopardy, when a small expense would remove the gas, and prevent the casualties.

2010, Hua Guo, et al., CSIRO Coal Mining Research and Technologies, Jürgen F. Brune (editor), Extracting the Science: A Century of Mining Research, Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration, page 73,
High gas emissions from the longwall goaf is one of the main problems at a number of highly gassy coal mines in Australia, resulting in a significant number of face stoppages. To address the issue of goaf gas control, CSIRO's research aimed at developing optimum goaf gas control.

(mining) The waste left in old mine workings; goafing.


stowboard

(UK, dialect, mining) A place into which rubbish is put.


costeaning

(mining) A process for discovering metallic lodes by sinking small pits through the superficial deposits to the solid rock, and then driving from one pit to another across the direction of the vein, so as to cross all the veins between the two pits.


gobline

At Mine C, the future tailgate entry was 184 ft away from the longwall gobline and under a cover depth of 900 ft.

2002, Proceedings ... International Conference on Ground Control in Mining, page 16:

They serve as the gobline supports for the space between the canopy tip and faceline as shields are removed one by one from the tail end to head end.

(mining) The outer extent of the gob (waste material) in an old mine.


trogue

Compare German Trog (“trough”), English trough.

(mining) A wooden trough forming a drain.


frett

(mining) The worn side of the bank of a river.


cledge

(archaic, mining) The upper layer of fuller's earth.


dousting

dousting (countable and uncountable, plural doustings)

Lock, Charles George Warnford (1895) Economic mining: a practical handbook for the miner, the metallurgist and the merchant: “Dry winnowing or "dousting" is useful where the ore is more friable than the ganguo, eg the chalcopyrite and erubescite at the Capo copper-mines, Namaqualand.”

(obsolete, mining, chiefly Cornwall) A process for separating the dust from ore.


doust

en-verb

doust (third-person singular simple present dousts, present participle dousting, simple past and past participle dousted)

dousts (present singular third-person)
dousting (participle present)
dousted (participle past)
dousted (past)

Lock, Charles George Warnford (1895) Economic mining: a practical handbook for the miner, the metallurgist and the merchant: “The ore is first cobbed and classed into (a) prile, (b) best dredge, and (c) crusher dredge; a is finished product; c is crushed, jigged, and huddled; b is dousted, or, after reducing in rolls to 8-mesh, dry-sifted in fine mesh hand sieves.”

(obsolete, mining, chiefly Cornwall) To separate dust from ore.


snoff

(mining) A short candle end used for igniting a fuse.


miners moss

(mining) Alternative form of miner's moss


miner's moss

(mining) Carpeting in sluice boxes used to collect heavy minerals from sluiced paydirt.


miners' moss

(mining) Alternative spelling of miner's moss


basseting

(mining) The upward direction of a vein in a mine.

(mining) The emergence of a stratum at the surface.


stowce

(mining) A wooden landmark to indicate possession of mining land.


choke damp

An asphyxiant found in enclosed places such as mines and sewers; a mixture of several gases left after oxygen is removed from the air, typically nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor.


stockwork

(mining) A system of working in ore, etc., when it lies not in strata or veins, but in solid masses, so as to be worked in chambers or stories.


scove

(UK, dialect, Cornwall, mining) Rich, pure tin ore.


slocking stone

(UK, dialect, Cornwall, mining) A rich piece of ore displayed in order to tempt people to embark in a mining enterprise.


slackline

From slack + line. The verb is a back-formation from slacklining.

(forestry, mining, sports) A length of cable, rope, or webbing that hangs loosely from its points of suspension.


washing stuff

(mining) Any earthy deposit containing enough gold to pay for washing it.


surfaceman

(mining) A miner who works in the open air, rather than underground.


nickings

(mining) Small coal produced during cutting at the side of the coalface.


dilving

(obsolete, mining) The shaking of tin ore in a sieve held underwater so that the waste flows out, leaving the tin behind.


tut-work

1852-1866, Charles Tomlinson, Cyclopaedia of Useful Arts and Manufactures
Tut-work is also employed upon the lode itself, though from the advantages generally considered to arise from the tribute system […]

(mining, archaic) Work done by the piece, as in non-metalliferous rock, the amount done being usually reckoned by the fathom.


sollar

From Old French soler, solier, from Latin solarium (“a terrace or flat roof”), from sol (“sun”).

der

(mining) A platform in a shaft, especially one of those between the series of ladders in a shaft.


rolly

From roll + -y. Compare older roly-poly.

(mining, historical) Alternative form of rolley (“horse-drawn wheeled vehicle used in a mine”).


hanging wall

(mining) the upper wall of inclined vein, or that which hangs over the miner's head when working in the vein.


bluecap

Mr. Hewitson mentions a pair of bluecaps having built their nest in a bottle[…]

1869, W. J. Sterland, The birds of Sherwood Forest, page 84:


firesetting

(mining, historical) The use of fire to soften or crack the working face of a lode, to facilitate excavation; later superseded by the use of explosives.


hardground

(mining) A hard stratum of rock other than coal.


weighboard

(geology, mining) Alternative form of wayboard


wayboard

In the Mill Close Mine, a very rich and extensive flat occurred under a way-board which was topped with a tiny coal seam 1 in. thick or so, the way-board itself being from 1 to 3 ft. thick, and looking very much like an […]

1905, Institution of Mining and Metallurgy (Great Britain), Transactions of the Institution of Mining & Metallurgy, volume 15, page 176:

(geology, mining) A thin layer or band of rock that separates or defines the boundaries of thicker strata.


get to grass

en-verb

get to grass (third-person singular simple present gets to grass, present participle getting to grass, simple past got to grass, past participle (UK) got to grass or (US) gotten to grass)

gets to grass (present singular third-person)
getting to grass (participle present)
got to grass (past)
got to grass (UK participle past)
gotten to grass (US participle past)

“Come along. No fear of the water coming in, or I'd soon say let's get to grass.”

1896, George Manville Fenn, Sappers and Miners; The Flood beneath the Sea, chapter 42, “Mining Matters”

Men working at deep mines started work after a long and tiring descent, and near the end of their shift they held back on their effort, so they would have enough energy left to “get to grass.”

1991, Larry Lankton, “The Underground: Change and Continuity”, in Cradle to Grave: Life, Work, and Death at the Lake Superior Copper Mines, chapter 2, page 33:

But love was no protection in the terror and the din
When the island gave its answer, the day the sea broke in
I heard the shouted warning, I tried to get to grass
But the ladders jammed with miners, there was no room to pass
I never was a sailor but I met a sailor's death
Ninety feet below the ocean, I drew that dying breath

2003, Tom Bliss, song “The Silverlode of Sark”, from album Downhill All the Way

(mining) To leave a mine and get to the surface, particularly to escape an underground disaster.


dead ground

(mining) the portion of a vein in which there is no ore


foothole

From foot + hole, possibly influenced by foothold.

(mining, climbing) A hole into which the foot can be wedged to aid in climbing; a foothold.


fire damper

Jack is a former fire damper who was injured in an explosion.

(historical, archaic, mining) A mine worker who detects and clears a mineshaft of firedamp by intentionally burning or blowing it up.


tributor

(mining) A miner who was paid a percentage of the value of whatever ore he mined.


sleeping table

(mining) A stationary inclined platform on which pulverized ore is washed.


horseflesh ore

In allusion to its peculiar reddish colour on fresh fracture.


H-piece

(mining) The part of a plunger pump that contains the valve.


clack door

(mining) The removable cover of the opening giving access to a pump valve.


flint mill

(mining, historical) An obsolete appliance for lighting a miner at his work, in which flints on a revolving wheel were made to produce a shower of sparks, which gave light without igniting the firedamp.


blind level

(mining) A level or drainage gallery which has a vertical shaft at each end, and acts as an inverted siphon.


man engine

(historical) A mechanical lift for raising or lowering people through considerable distances; specifically (mining) a contrivance by which miners ascend or descend in a shaft. It consists of a series of landings in the shaft and an equal number of shelves on a vertical rod which has an up and down motion equal to the distance between the successive landings. A man steps from a landing to a shelf and is lifted or lowered to the next landing, upon which he then steps, and so on, travelling by successive stages.


ball vein

(mining) A sort of iron ore, found in loose masses of a globular form, containing sparkling particles.


draught engine

(mining) An engine used for pumping, raising heavy weights, etc.


mother of coal

Apparently named by analogy with mother of pearl and mother of vinegar, on the theme of a matrix that produces (or was believed to produce) the end product and also coexists therewith.


black tin

(mining, mineralogy) Tin ore (cassiterite), when dressed, stamped and washed, ready for smelting. It is in the form of a black powder, like fine sand.


bull pump

(mining) A direct single-acting pumping engine, in which the steam cylinder is placed above the pump.


longwall

In addition to its work on longwall faces, the A.B. Fifteen has been adapted for shortwall work either as undercutter or as overcutter, particular care having been taken to give it increased manoauvrability by the provision of special pulleys, and increased mobility by the addition of a tilting underframe.

(mining) A long wall of coal that is mined in a single slice.


streamworks

(mining, Cornwall) A place where an alluvial deposit of tin ore is worked.


strike a lead

strike a lead (third-person singular simple present strikes a lead, present participle striking a lead, simple past struck a lead, past participle struck a lead or (rare) stricken a lead)

strikes a lead (present singular third-person)
striking a lead (participle present)
struck a lead (past)
struck a lead (participle past)
stricken a lead (participle past rare)


stoper

(mining) A kind of drill for excavating stopes.


seatearth

(UK, mining) The layer of sedimentary rock underlying a coal seam.


hoistroom

(mining) A space at the top of a mineshaft that holds the elevator to lift humans and equipment using a pulley and cable.


winding tower

Förderturm

structure supporting machinery above the entrance to an underground mineshaft


shafthead frame

en-noun

shafthead frame (plural shafthead frames)


headframe

CBC: Yellowknife vote saves Robertson Headframe for now

(mining) the structure supporting machinery above the entrance to an underground mineshaft.


azogue

azogue (countable and uncountable, plural azogues)

(mining) silver ores suitable for treatment by amalgamation with mercury.


lithogeochemistry

(geology, chemistry, mining) The scientific study of the composition, structure, properties and reactions of stone and mineral from the earth.


forefield

(British, mining) The face of a mine working.


forebreast

From Middle English forebrest, equivalent to fore- + breast. Cognate with Scots forebreist.


windway

(mining, historical) A wind road; a ventilation route in a mine.


up-over

(mining, civil engineering, attributive) A method of shaft excavation by drifting to a point below, and then raising instead of sinking.


Triger process

Named after M. Triger, a French engineer.

(engineering, mining) A method of sinking through water-bearing ground, in which the shaft is lined with tubbing and provided with an airlock, work being proceeded with under air pressure.


paystreak

(mining) The zone, parallel to the walls of a vein, in which the ore is concentrated, or any narrow streak of paying ore in less valuable material.


pit boss

It is, among other things, sufficiently stated in the declaration that appellant is owner and operator of a coal mine, and has in its employ a pit boss, to whom it has given authority to direct and control the labors of those employed in its mine.

1890, "Consolidated Coal Co. v. Wombacher" (Supreme Court of Illinois) in The Northeastern Reporter, vol. 24, p. 628 (Google preview)

How long could a man expect to stand on the steps of a company building, with a super and a pit-boss at his back, and organise a union of mine-workers?

1917, Upton Sinclair, King Coal, book 4, ch. 6:

(mining, dated) A direct overseer of laborers in a mining operation.


gloryhole

en-verb

gloryhole (third-person singular simple present gloryholes, present participle gloryholing, simple past and past participle gloryholed)

gloryholes (present singular third-person)
gloryholing (participle present)
gloryholed (participle past)
gloryholed (past)

Furthermore, gloryholing was extremely hazardous because of having to work on loose slopes and upon some ground which was on fire or through which gas and smoke were issuing. For these reasons gloryholing was abandoned.

1930, The Mining Congress Journal, volume 16, page 339:


mantrip

His shift was over, and he was heading out on a mantrip, a type of shuttle that transports workers.

2015 June 20, David Segal, “The People v. the Coal Baron”, in New York Times:

(mining) A shuttle for transporting miners down into an underground mine.


orefield

The balance is home-produced and is railborne from inland orefields. The home orefields serving South Wales are situated at Banbury and at Irthlingborough, on the ex-L.N.W.R. Northampton-Peterborough branch.

1961 August, “New traffic flows in South Wales”, in Trains Illustrated, page 493:

The Midlands Basin orefield in Ireland contains several large zinc-lead(-barium) ore deposits formed from moderate temperature fluids generated by deep crustal circulation of seawater-derived brines during continental rifting ( 15, 16 ).

2009 February 6, Jamie J. Wilkinson et al., “Anomalously Metal-Rich Fluids Form Hydrothermal Ore Deposits”, in Science, volume 323, number 5915, →DOI, pages 764–767:


streamwork

The day is marked by the serio-comic custom of sending a young lad to the highest bound or hillock in the streamwork, and allowing him to sleep there as long as he can—…

1884, The Western Antiquary; Or, Devon and Cornwall Note-book

Tinworking clearly post-dates abandonment of the settlement, and may date the streamwork to the late medieval period, although it could have been worked at any time between this date and the nineteenth century.

(mining) A place where an alluvial deposit of tin ore is worked.


veinstuff

en-noun

veinstuff (countable and uncountable, plural veinstuffs)

The less valuable minerals are called veinstuffs, and the more valuable are termed vein ores. The more common veinstuffs are calcite, quartz, heavy spar, and fluorspar.

1900, Lyman Child Wooster, The Geological Story of Kansas, page 59:

(mining) Minerals found in a vein, of lesser value than ores.


luncart

(mining) a lenticular mass, nodule, or ball


lurryman

Your lurryman as a rule is proud of his horse and careful of its appearance, this interest being shared by his attendant boy, otherwise known as a "nipper," part of whose duty it is to go from warehouse to warehouse in search of packages to make up a load.

1896, John Mortimer, Mercantile Manchester past and present, page 115:

(mining) One who handles or manages a lurry.


shackler

(mining, historical) A person who couples wagons together.


funnel box

The calcined stuff, as it comes from the furnace, is thrown through a hopper or shaking funnel box between two metal cylinders, through which both the coarſer particles and clods fall

1790, Ignaz von Born, New Process Of Amalgamation Of Gold And Silver Ores:

(mining) An apparatus for collecting finely crushed ore from water.


kirner

It may be noted here that all the holes were bored with an ordinary boring ratchet, and although the hole is larger than the one prepared for powder, yet it was not considered that any extra labour was taken in the boring owing to the boring ratchet being used instead of the ordinary jumper or kirner.

1887, Mining Institute of Scotland, Transactions - Volume 8, page 178:

Tools for Single Hand Boring -- Hammer, weighing 3 or 4 lbs. ; jumpers, made of 1 inch or 3/4 inch octagon steel, or iron tipped with steel — length, 2 feet, 3 feet, and 4 feet; face of jumper 1 1/2 inch, 1 1/4 inch, and 1 inch; kirners of same material, and about 4 feet long; cleaners of copper, 4 feet long.

1894, William Williamson, Mining Notes and Formulæ for Students Preparing for the, page 65:

The kirner was made to give repeated blows in the hole, turning it partly at each blow to keep the hole cylindrical.

(mining, Scotland) A hand-operated jumper.


highwall

(mining) The unexcavated face of exposed overburden and coal in a surface mine.


gobbin

gobbin (countable and uncountable, plural gobbins)

(mining) Waste material in old mine workings.


onsetter

(mining, historical, UK, dialect, Northern England) A worker at the bottom of a mineshaft who exchanges the empty and full corves.


skipman

(mining) The man who loads and operates the skip in a mine.


presplit

en-verb

presplit (third-person singular simple present presplits, present participle presplitting, simple past and past participle presplit)

presplits (present singular third-person)
presplitting (participle present)
presplit (participle past)
presplit (past)

(mining) To shape the outcome of an explosive blast by forming cracks in advance.


presplit

(mining) A crack produced for this purpose.


sluds

(mining, UK, Cornwall, obsolete) half-roasted ores


lampkeeper

(mining, historical) The person in charge of the Davy lamps in a mine.


inclineman

(mining, historical) A miner working on an inclined plane.


oncostman

(mining, historical) Any workman who was paid a daily rate.


half-marrow

(mining, historical) Either of a pair of young boys employed as putters, pushing wagons in the mine, and dividing their earnings.


gang-rider

(mining, historical) A worker riding upon, and in charge of, a train of underground wagons in a mine.


pinch out

pinch out (third-person singular simple present pinches out, present participle pinching out, simple past and past participle pinched out)

pinches out (present singular third-person)
pinching out (participle present)
pinched out (participle past)
pinched out (past)

(mining, geology) For a distinct body of rock between underlying and overlying strata, to thin out and come to an end, so that the strata above come to lie on the strata below.


pinch out

(mining, geology) A volume of rock or oil trapped or isolated between strata that have pinched it out.


rolley

(mining, historical) A horse-drawn wheeled vehicle used in a mine.


fore-overman

(mining) A supervisor in charge of overmen.


craneman

(mining, historical) A boy employed to hoist the corves of coals on to the rolleys with the crane.


hod boy

(mining, historical) A boy employed to convey coal to wagons in the working place.


helper-up

(mining, historical) A boy employed to assist the barrowman out of a dip place.


hooker-on

(mining, historical) A hanger-on, or onsetter.


flat lad

(mining, historical) A craneman working with tubs and flats.


hanging side

These subdrifts are driven the full width of the copper and explore thoroughly the foot and hanging sides of the lode.

1925, Bureau of Mines Information Circular:

(mining) the overhanging side of an inclined or hading vein


earthscraper

/ˈɝθˌskɹeɪp.ɚ/

(construction, mining) Synonym of bellyscraper (“a piece of heavy equipment”)


corver

(mining, historical) A person who makes corves, or coal baskets.


stoneman

(mining, historical) A miner who makes excavations in hard strata other than coal.


pony putter

(mining, historical) The driver of a pony that draws a mine wagon.


barrowman

From barrow + -man. Prior to the introduction of underground tramways, coal was carried on barrows.

(mining, historical) A putter: one who puts the tubs of coal from the workings to the cranes, flats, or stations, so that they can be conveyed to the surface.


back-overman

(mining, historical) A person employed to superintend the pit during the "back" or afternoon shift, in the absence of the overman.


wind road

(mining, historical) An underground route for ventilation in a mine.


switch keeper

(mining, historical) A worker who attends the switches or passing places on the underground railways.


buttocker

(mining, historical) A worker who gets coal off at a longwall face.


dataler

From a dialectal form of day tale + -er, as the salary is told by the day; the first element is perhaps analogous to Icelandic dagatal.

(mining, historical) An underground mine worker who was paid a daily rate.


wasteman

Multicultural London English
Multicultural Toronto English

en-noun

wasteman (plural wastemen or (MLE, MTE) wastemans)

wastemen (plural)
wastemans (Multicultural-London-English plural)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-wasteman.wav

(mining, historical) A person employed to examine the state of the mine workings, to check that they are properly ventilated, and sometimes to build pillars to support the roof in the waste.


screenman

(mining, historical) A person employed to screen the coal to remove impurities.


bye-workman

(mining, historical) An underground mine labourer.


wood leader

(mining, historical) A person employed to carry wooden props to parts of the mine where they are needed.


chartermaster

(mining, historical) A contractor for working a pit or part of a pit.


way-cleaner

(mining, historical) A person employed to clean the rails, removing coaldust etc.


timber drawer

(mining, historical) A person employed to remove timber props.


taker-off

(mining, historical) A person employed to unhook the wagons at self-acting inclines.


check viewer

(mining, historical) A viewer employed by the lessor to see that the provisions of the lease are duly observed.


water leader

(mining, historical) A person employed to remove water from the horseways and other places.


small leader

(mining, historical) A boy employed to put small coals to a stowboard.


browman

(mining, historical) The worker in charge of the cages at the pithead.


ledger wall

(mining) The wall under a vein; the footwall.


MSHA

(US, mining) Acronym of Mine Safety and Health Administration.


morlop

(mining) A small jasper pebble of a kind found in New South Wales.


buzzie

Dredging wasn't mining. A man had to know something about lode mining, and could Andy name a man working on the boat who knew a muckstick from a buzzie?

1950, Helen Rich, The Willow-bender: A Novel, page 236:

Both buzzies were broke down. Burke left me alone to do my work. I disconnected teh compressed-air lines, opened my tool box and got at it.

1980, Donald McCaig, The Butte Polka: A Novel, page 114:

Technology such as steam-powered hoists and "buzzies," hand-held, two-man air drills, speeded up production but did nothing to improve working conditions. The buzzies, in fact, produced so much fine dust that they led to a higher rate of silicosis, a debilitating respiratory disease, and were soon dubbed "widowmakers."

2006, Clemens P. Work, Darkest Before Dawn: Sedition and Free Speech in the American West, →ISBN:

(mining, slang) A hand-held pneumatic drill used in mining.


washdirt

(mining) Earth rich enough in metal to pay for washing.


swelly

Between the two extremes, the line of coast passes through a very great depression of the strata, designated locally a "swelly," and constituting that feature generally met with in coal fields which is properly termed a basin. This greatest depression takes place near the town of Sunderland, where the coal beds are at a depth of 300 fathoms, or 1,800 feet, below the level of the sea, […]

1863, A History of the Trade and Manufactures of the Tyne, Wear, and Tees:

Swellies are depressions of seams of coal: the floor and roof dipping into a trough and rising out of it in most cases to such a level as they would have been found to exist, had no disturbance taken place. In such cases the coal in the bottom of the trough or swelly is commonly of unusual thickness. An excellent example of a swelly is found at Seaton Delaval Colliery, in Northumberland.

1870, George Clementson Greenwell, A Practical Treatise on Mine Engineering, page 120:

(UK, dialect, mining, historical) An abnormal local thickening of a seam of coal.


nip-out

(mining) The situation where the roof and thill approach each other, diminishing the usual thickness of the coal seam or extinguishing it completely.


underburdened

en-adj

underburdened (comparative more underburdened, superlative most underburdened)

more underburdened (comparative)
most underburdened (superlative)

Probably one or more of the holes was underburdened, causing an ignition of methane and coal dust.

1960, Bulletin - Issues 586-595, page 265:

Detonation of underburdened or overburdened explosive charges is extremely dangerous.

1984, Employment Safety and Health Guide, page 7249:

A blown-out shot of explosives that was stemmed with coal dust, or an underburdened shot of explosives could have ignited the coal dust.

2006, Robert E Hartley, David Kenney, Death Underground: The Centralia and West Frankfort Mine Disasters, →ISBN:

(mining) Having too powerful an explosive for the amount of rock broken up, resulting in a risk of igniting dust and gasses.


studdle

(mining) A prop supporting a platform in a mine.


studdle

en-verb

studdle (third-person singular simple present studdles, present participle studdling, simple past and past participle studdled)

studdles (present singular third-person)
studdling (participle present)
studdled (participle past)
studdled (past)


narrow work

(mining) The construction of passages, air-shafts, etc.


kettle bottom

(mining) A smooth cylindrical piece of petrified wood in the ceiling of a mine which may drop down and injure or kill miners


overcutter

It is estimated that the capacity of an overcutter is three times that of a chain-breast machine and twice that of a shortwall machine;

The top and bottom portions of the machine are exactly alike and it may consequently be turned over and employed as an overcutter as well as an undercutter.

In addition to its work on longwall faces, the A.B. Fifteen has been adapted for shortwall work either as undercutter or as overcutter, particular care having been taken to give it increased manoauvrability by the provision of special pulleys, and increased mobility by the addition of a tilting underframe.

1960, Colliery Guardian Overseas, page 50:

Deep settlement points revealed that ground losses were concentrated at the overcutter at the front of the shield which had a radius 19 mm greater than the body of the shield to aid in negotiating the short radius turn.

1999, Gabriel Fernandez, Robert A. Bauer, Geo-engineering for Underground Facilities, →ISBN:

(mining) A device used to cut into rock walls from above.


shortwall

Under this philosophy, the extra daily shortwall production of 55 tons of clean coal would be costed at $8.39 per ton.

1977, Larry E. Green, Eugene Robert Palowitch, Comparative shortwall and room-and-pillar mining costs, page 16:

(mining) A short wall of coal that is mined in a single slice.


cross-course

Williams's lode heaves the cross-course 4 feet towards the left-hand; the cross-course then intersects Trathan's lode, and at some levels heaves it towards the right-hand; and lastly, it heaves the Black lode 11 feet towards the left-hand.

In this end the main part of the lode is probably missed, but the branch on which it is driving has a rather silver character; and as the cross-course is approached, it is not improbably that the silver may be met with here.

1862, The Mining and Smelting Magazine - Volume 2, page 80:

The north section of the mine has also a crossback or cross-course, but the result at the crossing is so completely reversed that one is struck with astonishment to see the opposites in the same formation.

1894, North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers, Transactions - Volume 43, page 440:

(mining) A vein or lode that crosses the main lode, sometimes accompanied by a change of course in the main lode.


hoistman

By a system of shafts, levers and links the overwinding and overspeeding device which is geared to the depth indicator is attached to the hoist-control lever in such a way that the machine would be stopped automatically should the hoistman mismanipulate his levers at the beginning or end of a hoist.

(mining) A person who operates the hoisting machinery.


cost-book

(historical) A book containing the names and shares of the joint speculators in a mining enterprise.


powder mine

An excavation filled with gunpowder for blasting rocks, etc.


seat earth

(mining) A bed of clay that underlies a coal seam.


sumpman

(mining) A pitman's assistant, responsible for the machinery in the engine shaft.


untopping

J.E. Greave's diaries tell us he took this suggestion on board, and on 4 September 1894 he and his brother R.M Greaves began discussing the "untopping" of a large area at Llechwedd.

2003, Ivor Wynne Jones, Victorian Slate Mining, page 59:

Untopping enabled a road to be built into part of Llechwedd in Ffestiniog in the 1960s

2015, David Gwyn, Welsh Slate: Archaeology and History of an Industry, page 131:

[…] continued production and extraction has resulted in the untopping of old workings, meaning that the roof has been taken off long worked-out galleries to allow good slate to be made.

2019, Anthony Coulls, The Slate Industry:

(mining) Removal of overburden from an old mine to allow continued economic operation.


farmee

(mining) A legal entity that contracts part of a mining or oil lease from a farmor in exchange for services.


dog-belt

(mining, historical) A broad leather belt worn around the waist for drawing dans or sledges in a mine.


galamander

/ˈɡæləmændə/

/ˈɡæləˌmændəɹ/

Unknown; said to have been coined by an American blacksmith Elder Littlefield, and possibly from galley (“type of boat”) + meander (“to turn or wind in a course or passage”).

coinage

Down at Vinalhaven, Me., which has just been celebrating its sesquicentennial, they used to use what they called a "galamander" to carry heavy stones from the granite quarries. The "galamander" is a combination stone-boat on wheels and a derrick.

1939 July 10, “Odd items from everywhere”, in The Boston Globe, volume CXXXVI, number 10, Boston, Mass.: The Globe Newspaper Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 16, column 2:

Galamanders, drawn by oxen or horses, transported the blocks to the cutting sheds, which were usually located near the wharfs. Galamanders were elongated four-wheeled wagons equipped with derricks and the wheels of these locally made wagons were eight or nine feet in diameter. Maine galamanders are few today.

1956 August 12, Esther E[lizabeth] Wood, “Granite quarries brought prosperity to Maine coastal areas”, in Portland Sunday Telegram and Sunday Press Herald, volume 70, number 13, Portland, Me.: Guy Gannett Publishing Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 47, column 4:

One hundred years ago, when Granite Hill was being mined, Peter Cain imagines a galamander was used to haul the stone blocks to the docks in Hallowell. The galamander – no one's quite sure where the name came from – was a cart-like contraption made of wood and wrought iron that could transport a block of granite weighing 20 tons. […] [T]here were two abandoned galamanders in the island's quarries at one time.

1979 May 17, Martha Durrance, “Galamanders: Restoring a forgotten tool”, in Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Me.: Jean Gannett Hawley, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 23, column 1:

"I think so too. And this is a galamander. You know this is the Galamander District?" / "So that's a galamander. Why it's just a cart, and I thought a galamander was some kind of animal, you know like a salamander."

1993, Elizabeth Richman, chapter 3, in Be Jubilant, My Heart! […], Nashville, Tenn.: Star Song Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 30:

A relic of the island's quarrying days, the galamander was a massive oak and iron wagon with nine-foot rear wheels. It had once been used to carry slabs of granite from the quarries to the cutting sheds. […] Since then, the galamander had been set up as a memorial to the industry―long since gone―and had doubled as a kind of jungle gym for generations of island kids.

1999, David A[rthur] Crossman, “Something Spooky”, in The Secret of the Missing Grave, Camden, Me.: Down East Books, →ISBN, page 104:

Until the use of railroad cars, teams of oxen and horses hauled stones, often in a special wagon equipped with a derrick or crane called a "galamander." […] It is reported that well into the twentieth century there were as many as six galamanders working in the Sands Quarry on Vinalhaven during an average day. Four teams of horses drew the largest galamander, named Jumbo. Today, a restored galamander sits on Vinalhaven's village green, a symbol of an era when granite was king.

2009, Harry Gratwick, “Heavy Freight: When Vinalhaven Granite Traveled the Country”, in Penobscot Bay: People, Ports & Pastimes (American Chronicles), Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, published 2011, →ISBN, part V (Penobscot Bay and beyond):

(Maine, mining, historical) A customized horse- or ox-drawn stoneboat or wagon once used for hauling stone from quarries, with smaller front wheels and larger rear ones, and a derrick to lift blocks of stone on and off the vehicle.

Kennebec Journal
Robertson Quarry Galamander


air-head

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-airhead.wav

A narrow gallery, termed the air-head, is carried in the upper part of the coal, in the rib walls, along one or more of the sides. In the example here figured, it is carried all round, and the air enters at the bolt-hole e. Lateral openings, named spouts, are led from the air-head gallery into the side of work; and the circulating stream mixed with the gas in the workings, enters by these spouts, as represented by the arrows, and returns by the air-head at g, to the upeast pit.

1839, Andrew Ure, “PITCOAL”, in A Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines: Containing a Clear Exposition of Their Principles and Practice, London: Printed [by A[ndrew] Spottiswoode] for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longmans, […], →OCLC, page 990:

[T]he method introduced by Mr. [Benjamin] Gibbons in Staffordshire of exhausting the foul air, by air-heads cut in the lop of the coal, connected with a channel in the side of the shaft, terminating in a chimney on the surface, was received as a decided improvement upon the ordinary system in use in that coal-basin, where the extraordinary thickness of 30 feet of the vein coal renders a peculiar plan indispensable.

1847 April 17, “Institution of Civil Engineers”, in The Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, &c., number 1578, London: Printed by Henry Silverlock, […]; published for the proprietor, at the Literary Gazette office, […], →OCLC, page 300, column 3:

[T]he mine then becomes exposed to the most fearful results, where the workings have been opened, by the Air being driven backwards along the Airhead into the reservoirs of Gas formed in the upper cavities of the workings, and issuing into the Gate-road charged with the Gas to the firing point, causing an explosion, of which many familiar instances might be adduced.

1851 April 23, Benjamin Gibbons, “On the Ventilation of Mines”, in Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Proceedings, Birmingham: Published by the Institution [of Mechanical Engineers], […], →OCLC, page 13:

The ventilation of the mines near Wolverhampton is said to have been much improved through the agency of Her Majesty's Inspectors, especially as regards the more regular and better construction of "air-heads" or ventilating channels.

1861, [Edward Headlam] Greenhow, “[Appendix.] IV. Dr. Greenhow’s Second Report on Districts with Excessive Mortality from Lung-diseases.”, in Public Health. Fourth Report of the Medical Officer of the Privy Council. With Appendix (Reports from Commissioners (Session 6 February – 7 August 1862); 6 (Emigration Commission; Factories; Mines; Public Health)), volume XXII, [London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office?], published 11 April 1862, →OCLC, page 157:

(mining, archaic) A horizontal channel providing ventilation in a mine.


forcque

(mining) Alternative form of fork (“bottom of a sump”)


depillar

en-verb

depillar (third-person singular simple present depillars, present participle depillaring, simple past and past participle depillared)

depillars (present singular third-person)
depillaring (participle present)
depillared (participle past)
depillared (past)

(mining) to remove a pillar, or pillars, from a mine


mullocker

This clause shall be satisfied as to such of the employees as are contract miners, or fillers, or truckers, or mullockers, by adding 1s. to the amount which they are to be respectively set to earn.

1920, The New South Wales Industrial Gazette, volume 17, page 106:

(New Zealand, mining) A worker who clears waste material from a mine.


overcloth

en-noun

overcloth (countable and uncountable, plural overcloths)

The presses are dressed with double canvas and, when cleaning-up, the overcloths, after the precipitate has been removed, are soaked in weak hydrochloric acid to loosen the traces of precipitate still adhering in the interstices of the cloth, and are then scrubbed.

1931, The Transactions of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, page 229:

New canvas is used first as undercloths, and these as required are made to replace discarded overcloths.

1931, Institution of Mining and Metallurgy (Great Britain), Bulletin - Issues 316-327, page 2:

The top of a double layer of canvas coverings that cover the presses used in mining.


bellbox

My foreman with his faked assistant had littered the place with all my apparatus, my bellbox, my crowsfoot, the V-drills, the rods, and the weight, but Malone insisted that we disregard all that and descend ourselves to the lowest level.

1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed:

(mining, historical) A bell-shaped apparatus used to extract broken rods from the bottom of a mine shaft.


drift mine

(mining) Any mine reached by a drift (horizontal or inclined passage) from the surface.


cockermeg

(mining) An arrangement of pit props used to support a coalface


shotfirer

(mining) A person employed to prepare, position and detonate explosives to demolish buildings and structures, or dislodge rocks and soil.


black sand

black sand (countable and uncountable, plural black sands)

(mining) Sand high in magnetite and other iron-rich ferrous minerals, frequently found associated with placer mining.


dry blower

From being a machine that does not need water to produce concentrate, and uses air flow instead.

(mining) A machine that uses an air blower to blow away light fines to concentrate heavy fines and larger bits, from pay dirt. This concentrate can then go through further refinement.


Copperbelt

Democratic Republic of the Congo#English

A mining region of Zambia, which stretches into the Democratic Republic of the Congo.


dibhole

(UK, mining) The lowest part of a mine, into which the water drains.


Smallman clip

(mining, historical) A clip used to connect a rope to a tub of coal in order to haul it.


fathomage

fathomage (countable and uncountable, plural fathomages)

(mining) The amount of money paid to a miner based on fathoms of material worked.


winzeman

(mining) A man in charge of a winze in a mine.


rock glass

(chemistry, mining, geology) Metastable glass of volcanic or dyke origin.


heapstead

(mining, historical) The elevated framework of wood or iron at bank, to the top of which the pit is continued above the surface, to provide the necessary height to pass the coals over the skreens into the wagons.


gatewayman

I would like to know, for example, the length of time taken to cut the 125 yards of face with the bar machine, the number of fillers employed on the same length of face, and what number of gatewaymen were employed to do the necessary canch work at the face.

1926, Institution of Mining Engineers (Great Britain), The Mining Engineer, page 281:

(mining, historical) A kind of road repair worker in coal mines.


hardrock

hardrock (countable and uncountable, plural hardrocks)

The federal system for "hardrocks," pursuant to the Mining Law of 1872, allows the discovery, location, and development of these minerals without payment to the federal government.

Reflection coefficients calculated from impedance contrasts between felsic and mafic rocks and other common lithologies in hardrock terranes often exceed 6%, the estimated minimum value required to give strong reflections.

2003, Matthew. H. Salisbury, Craig. W. Harvey, Larry Matthews, “The Acoustic Properties of Ores and Host Rocks in Hardrock Terranes”, in David W. Eaton, Bernd Milkereit, Matthew Harold Salisbury, editors, Hardrock Seismic Exploration, page 9:

In this context, you asked us to provide information on (1) which types of royalties the 12 western states assess on hardrock mining operations and (2) trends on imports and exports of hardrock minerals.

2009, Robin M. Nazzaro, Hardrock Mining: Information on State Royalties and Trends, page 3:

(mining) Rock containing ore from which minerals are extracted.


cauldron arse

(UK, Ireland, mining slang, vulgar, obsolete) Synonym of cauldron bottom.


cauldron bottom

cauldron bottom (plural cauldron bottoms)

From cauldron + bottom, in reference to the shape and colour as seen from the perspective of someone in the coal mine. Compare Sicilian campanaru (literally “bell tower”) in sulfur mining.

ncog

(UK, mining slang, obsolete) A large, round mass in a coal seam that forms part of the roof of a coal mine passage (usually being a fossilized root or stump); considered a hazard due to being prone to falling without warning.


washeryman

(mining) A person who works in a washery in a mine.


opal pineapple

(gemology, mining) Alternative form of pineapple opal


pineapple opal

(gemology, mining) A large raw opal spheroidal gemstone with pineapple-like projection points


arcwall machine

en-noun

arcwall machine (plural arcwall machines)

Coordinate term: shortwall machine

(mining) A mobile cutting machine that can cut horizontally into walls.


jibhead

An improvement over the arcwaller, this machine is designed for giving a shear cut in any plane in addition to the horizontal cut, with a view to reduce the amount of blasting and to get better size-consist of the broken coal. It is used for rapid advance of headings. It has four units: a gearhead, a motor housing, a main jibhead, and an eccentric jibhead. The cutting head is mounted eccentrically on the main jibhead and the two are capable of complete rotational movement independently or […]

1966, Boris Mikhaĭlovich Vorobév, Ramrao T. Deshmukh, Advanced Coal Mining, volume 1, Asia Publishing House, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 449:


comby

en-adj

comby (comparative more comby, superlative most comby)

more comby (comparative)
most comby (superlative)

a comby lode

Some parts of a vein may exhibit a comby structure, while others show no trace of any particular arrangement.

1884, John Arthur Phillips, A Treatise on Ore Deposits, page 44:

(Cornwall, mining, obsolete) Formed of vertical plates, or combs.


jigman

(mining) Synonym of jigger (“one who sorts ore by jigging”)


buttyman

(mining) Synonym of butty (“miner who works under contract”)


bellyscraper

From belly + scraper.
* (earthmoving heavy equipment): From having a blade that scrapes the ground on the bottom "belly" of the vehicle.

(construction, mining) A piece of earthmoving equipment used to level land and build roads. A heavy equipment machinery with a blade on the bottom and a hopper on top, that can carry, scrape-up, and lay-down material.


mudcap

(mining) An explosive charge covered in mud, sand, or similar material before detonation, instead of being placed in a borehole.


mudcap

en-verb

mudcap (third-person singular simple present mudcaps, present participle mudcapping, simple past and past participle mudcapped)

mudcaps (present singular third-person)
mudcapping (participle present)
mudcapped (participle past)
mudcapped (past)

(mining) To cover an explosive charge in mud, sand, etc. before detonation, instead of placing it in a borehole.


outcropper

(mining) One who obtains coal from an outcrop, at or close to the surface.


flashdamp

From flash + damp, with 'damp' having the meaning of 'gas', as in old German, modern Dutch, and Danish.

Flashdamp is a more dangerous mixture than firedamp: first, because it is difficult of detection and often escapes the notice of the fire boss, who mistakes it for blackdamp, and has various ways of accounting for its position at the roof; second, because of the popular fallacy that this mixture, which extinguishes the flame of a lamp, is not explosive, whereas at certain stages of dilution it becomes highly explosive.

1908, J. T. Beard, C.E., E.M., Mine Gases and Explosions: Text-book for Schools and Colleges and for General Reference, 1st edition, John Wiley & Sons, page 127:

A flashdamp mixture is often lighter than air and presents the peculiarity strange to mines, of extinguishing a light at the roof.

1917, Coal Age: With Which is Consolidated The Colliery Engineer: Devoted to Coal Mining and Coke Manufacture, volume 11, McGraw-Hill, page 886:

For illustration, let it be required to calculate the specific gravity of flashdamp (undiluted mixture of methane and carbon dioxide) directly from the specific gravities of these gases[…]

1920, James T. Beard, C.E., E.M., Mine Gases and Ventilation: Textbook for Students of Mining, Mining engineers and Candidates Preparing for Mining Examinations: Designed for Working Out the Various Problems That Arise in the Practice of Coal Mining, as They Relate to the Safe and Efficient Operation of Mines, 2nd revised and enlarged edition, McGraw Hill Book Company, Inc., page 41:

[An exam question under the Coal Mines Regulation Act on the topic of Gases, Shot-Firing and Safety Lamps] What is Flashdamp? How is it formed? Where found, and what action has it on the flame of safety lamps? An area contains 2658 cubic feet of this gas. What volume would there be of the two gases forming this flashdamp? Show how you would find the Specific Gravity of flashdamp from the Specific Gravities of the two gases forming flashdamp.

1947, Alberta Dept of Lands and Mines. Mines Branch, Annual Report of the Mines Branch of the Department of Lands and Mines of the Province of Alberta, page 121:

(mining) A mixture of methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen that is found in mines, and ignited quickly within a safety lamp, but that is then extinguished quickly due to the exhaust products of the flame. Flashdamp can be heavier than air (called heavy flashdamp) or lighter than air (called light flashdamp), depending on the proportion of carbon dioxide.


uraniumaire

A millionaire whose wealth was acquired through uranium mining.


roofbolter

(mining) A machine for installing roofbolts.


roofbolt

(mining) A safety bolt installed in the roof of an underground mine.


roofbolt

roofbolt (third-person singular simple present roofbolts, present participle roofbolting, simple past and past participle roofbolted)

roofbolts (present singular third-person)
roofbolting (participle present)
roofbolted (participle past)
roofbolted (past)

(mining) To install safety bolts in the roof of an underground mine.


pitch mining

(mining) The mining of steeply inclined seams of coal.


canch

An upcast fault is when the seam is thrown up; to counteract this a "canch" of top stone must be taken down outbye over from the fault, and a "canch" of bottom stone taken up inbye over from the fault, then level up to the bottom of your "canch" at the foreside of the hitch outbye over until you have a regular gradient to the seam on the hitch.

1879, William Bailes, Student's Guide to the Principles of Coal & Metal Mining, page 17:

(mining, historical) An upper or lower portion of stone that is removed to form a gradient between workings.


at bank

From at + bank (“ground at the top of a shaft”).

com

This case would, no doubt, excite the attention of all professional men, and they would, he thought, ventilate the flues more extensively than they had done hitherto; but it had staggered him as to whether it was advisable to place the boilers underground or at bank. Unless the pits were very deep, he thought the boilers should be placed at bank, and the steam conveyed underground.

1861, North of England Institute of Mining Engineers, Transactions, volume 9, page 170:

We are using compressed air for hauling and pumping in a coal seam at a depth of 900 feet from the surface, and strange to say the pressure gauge attached to the air receiver at bank reads 90 pounds pressure per square inch above the pressure of the atmosphere, whereas, the pressure gauge attached to an air receiver in the mines reads higher than that at the bank.

January 1895, “Solutions to Questions which Appeared in the November Number and for which Prizes Have Been Awarded.”, in The Colliery Engineer and Metal Miner, volume 15, number 6:

He had in his hands the balance sheet of that society, which covered Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, and the ironstone mines of Cleveland, and included in its membership the whole of the men at work down the mines and a very large number of those working at bank, the total number of members being nearly 123,000.

1897 May 25, John Wilson, “Liability of Certain Employers to Workmen for Injuries”, in The Parliamentary Debates, 4th series (House of Commons), volume 49, United Kingdom, page 1314:

(mining, obsolete) On the surface; at or around the mine entrance.


at the bank

(mining, obsolete) Alternative form of at bank (“on the surface”).


room and pillar

(mining) A variant of breast stoping in which the mined material is extracted across a horizontal plane, creating horizontal arrays of rooms and pillars.


Geordie lamp

Named for its inventor, George Stephenson.

(mining, historical) A miners' lamp or safety lamp used in coal mines to prevent explosions.


quarry car

(mining) A car that operates on rails laid in a quarry, usually for carrying rock or waste.


ore car

(mining, rail transport) An open-top bulk material car of heavy construction for carrying dense ores, usually emptying through one or more hoppers.


mine car

(mining) A car that operates on rails laid in a mine, usually for carrying ore, coal, or waste.


above grass

From above + grass, in reference to grass only growing on the surface.

(UK, mining, obsolete) Above ground; on the surface.


pitwork

[…] and the remarks attached to each in Lean's report, show the necessity of adverting to the different conditions of the pitwork, in an attempt to estimate with accuracy the relative merit of different engines […]

1842, British Association for the Advancement of Science, Report of the Annual Meeting, page 103:

(mining) Pumping machinery used in a mine.


crossheading

(mining) A narrow opening for ventilation driven through coal or rock, separating the two passages.


pitwright

(historical, mining) A carpenter or engineer employed at a mine.


match factor

(mining) the ratio of truck arrival rate to loader service time (ratio of loading and dumping vehicles)


bar down

en-verb

bar down (third-person singular simple present bars down, present participle barring down, simple past and past participle barred down)

bars down (present singular third-person)
barring down (participle present)
barred down (participle past)
barred down (past)

(mining) To loosen mined ore in a cart using a bar in order to enable it to move through a chute.

(mining) To remove or pat down loose debris.


scoop driver

After expressing a desire to be a scoop driver, Mr. Collins trained him for this job and Mr. Amburgey began operating the scoop " a couple of weeks " after the opening of the Number 9 mine.

1983, United States. Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, Decisions - Volume 5; Volume 66, page 717:

"Got to go, boys," he said, interrupting an impassioned sermon by the scoop driver about the lineage of the University of Louisville's quarterback.

Each section had a foreman, a repair man, a miner operator, and a miner helper, two bolt men, two shuttle car drivers and most of the time, a supply man and a scoop driver. The scoop driver would clean up all the loose coal the mining machine couldn't get.

2015, Andy Timblin, A Life Worth Living:

(mining) One who operates an automated mining scoop.


trackhoe

From track + hoe, with conscious echoing of backhoe, which came first.

Coordinate term: backhoe

(construction, mining) An excavator (machine) mounted on caterpillar tracks. (Most are large; some are miniature for small jobs.)