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Introduction to Mining Engineering

This document provides an introduction to mining engineering and definitions of key mining terminology. It discusses that mining is the process of excavating minerals from the earth's crust for human benefit. It defines minerals, rocks, country rock, seams, ore, and waste/gangue. It also provides information on the status of mining in India, including that India has large reserves of minerals like iron ore and coal, and is a major exporter of minerals. However, mining is also very destructive to the environment, especially surface mining. The document contains several figures showing the worldwide distribution of minerals, the structure of the mining industry, its stakeholders, production volumes, and geographical distribution of minerals in India.

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12 views10 pages

Introduction to Mining Engineering

This document provides an introduction to mining engineering and definitions of key mining terminology. It discusses that mining is the process of excavating minerals from the earth's crust for human benefit. It defines minerals, rocks, country rock, seams, ore, and waste/gangue. It also provides information on the status of mining in India, including that India has large reserves of minerals like iron ore and coal, and is a major exporter of minerals. However, mining is also very destructive to the environment, especially surface mining. The document contains several figures showing the worldwide distribution of minerals, the structure of the mining industry, its stakeholders, production volumes, and geographical distribution of minerals in India.

Uploaded by

aman
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY KARNATAKA , SURATHKAL

DEPARTMENT OF MINING ENGINEERING

MI 101 INTRODUTION TO MINING ENGINEERING


3-0-0

Dr. Mangalpady Aruna


Associate Professor

Reference Books:
1. [Link], “Elements of Mining Engineering”, Vol. I & II
2. [Link], “Surface Mining”
3. [Link], Underground Coal Mining Methods
4. [Link], Introductory Mining Engineering
FEW IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS AND MINING TERMINOLOGY
What is mining?
Mining is the process of excavating minerals of economic value from the earth’s crust for benefit of mankind.
* For mining operations one should have a working knowledge of geology.

What is Geology?
The word geology means science of the earth and deals with the nature and origin of rocks that constitute the earth.

What is mineral?
A mineral is a homogeneous and naturally occurring substance having definite physical properties and a composition
that may be expressed by a chemical formula.

What is rock?
A rock may be composed of one mineral only, but is usually a mechanical mixture or aggregate of two or more minerals.
For example : Granite is a rock composed essentially of three minerals – quartz, felspar and mica.
Minerals can be considered as aggregates of chemical elements, so rocks are really aggregates of minerals.

Country rock of an ore body – is that rock which is predominant in the area and which contains the ore body.

Seam – is a mineral deposit which is typical of sedimentary rocks. The term seam generally used for coal deposits.

When excavating a useful mineral, the uneconomic rock which has to be excavated and discarded is called:
Rejection / dirt / waste – in coal mining practice
Gangue – in metal mining practice

What is ore?
An ore is a rock which contains mineral and which can be used for economical extraction of metal after processing.
Preamble:

• Of all the industrial activities, mining is the most environmentally destructive activity.

• The surface mining arguably more damaging to the environment than the underground mining.

• The damage caused by surface mining to the land is immense.

• India has huge mineral resources. Thus, the mining is an important industry in India.

• India is one of the largest exporters of - iron ore, chromite, bauxite, mica and manganese.

• India is ranked 5th among the mineral-producing countries in terms of volume of production.

• India is the largest producer of sheet mica - in 2012.

• Fourth largest producer of iron ore, alumina, chromite and bauxite in the world – in 2015

• Coal and iron ore reserves – 5th largest reserve in world.


STATUS OF MINING IN THE COUNTRY

• The total geographical area of India i.e 320 million hectares constitute 2.4% of the land area.

• Out of the estimated arable land of 166 million hectares, at present 141 million hectares are used for

cultivation purpose, while about 82,000 hectares is sustaining mining activities of some kind or the other.

• In all about 9200 mining leases are in operation in the country.

• The GDP contribution of the mining industry varies from 2.2 % to 2.5 % only, but going by the GDP of the

total industrial sector it contributes around 10 % to 11 %.

• Indian mining industry provides job opportunities to around 7,00,000 individuals.


Fig. 1 Worldwide mineral distribution

Note: India is one the key countries with high Iron ore, Coal and Bauxite reserves
Fig. 2 Mining Industry structure and overview
Fig. 3 Mining industry stake holders
Fig. 4 Production volume (2013-14): Thousand Tonnes
Fig. 5 Geographical distribution of various minerals

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