Mining jargon

About this list

Mining towns had a vocabulary of their own, and much of it is old. The list suits historical fiction set in coal country or gold rushes as well as modern mines.

174 terms, A to Z

above grass

Above ground; on the surface.

adit

A horizontal or nearly horizontal passage from the surface into a mine, as contrasted with a shaft or vertical entry passage, used for ventilation, haulage, drainage, or other purposes.

air-head

A horizontal channel providing ventilation in a mine.

at bank

On the surface; at or around the mine entrance.

back-overman

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

ball vein

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

bar down

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

barrowman

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.

beeline

A dynamite fuse made with a small quantity of dynamite powder along its length, so that the spark travels quickly and at a specific known rate.

black tin

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

blind level

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

blond metal

A variety of clay iron ore, from Staffordshire, England, once used for making tools such as nails, axes and horseshoes.

bord

The coalface parallel to the natural fissures.

bull pump

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

bunny

A sudden enlargement or mass of ore, as opposed to a vein or lode.

bye-workman

An underground mine labourer.

cal

wolfram, an ore of tungsten.

capel

A composite stone (quartz, schorl, and hornblende) in the walls of tin and copper lodes.

cauldron bottom

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.

caver

One who works the tailings of a mine to extract small pieces of marketable ore.

chat

Mining waste from lead and zinc mines.

check viewer

A viewer employed by the lessor to see that the provisions of the lease are duly observed.

clack door

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

coalface

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

coffin

An exploratory trench used when first digging a mine.

comminution

The breaking or grinding up of a material to form smaller particles.

cross-course

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

dan

A small truck or sledge used in coal mines.

Davy lamp

A miners' lamp or safety lamp used in coal mines to prevent explosions.

day level

A level driven from the surface.

daze

A glittering stone.

dead ground

the portion of a vein in which there is no ore

deads

The substances that enclose the ore on every side.

depressant

An agent that inhibits the flotation of a mineral or minerals.

devil's gold

Sulfur (the element).

dialer

A mining surveyor.

dog-belt

A broad leather belt worn around the waist for drawing dans or sledges in a mine.

dook

A heading or roadway following the dip of the strata.

draught engine

An engine used for pumping, raising heavy weights, etc.

drift mine

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

drive unit

A mechanical system that provides the reciprocating motion for shaker conveyors, which transport ore or coal along underground trough lines.

dry blower

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.

dry bone

smithsonite

Dudley

A miner's container for water for drinking.

elvan

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

fell

The finer portions of ore, which go through the meshes when the ore is sorted by sifting.

finger grip

An instrument used in recovering rods or tools dropped into a bored shaft.

firedamp

A flammable gas (mostly methane) found in coal mines; forms an explosive mixture with air.

flat lad

A craneman working with tubs and flats.

flint mill

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.

foal

A young boy who assisted the headsman by pushing or pulling the tub.

fore-overman

A supervisor in charge of overmen.

funnel box

An apparatus for collecting finely crushed ore from water.

gallows frame

headframe.

gang-rider

A worker riding upon, and in charge of, a train of underground wagons in a mine.

gangue

The earthy waste substances occurring in metallic ore.

geoengineering

The subfield of engineering concerned with designing and constructing tunnels, mines, and other human-designed geologic structures within and on earth.

Geordie

A Geordie lamp.

Geordie lamp

A miners' lamp or safety lamp used in coal mines to prevent explosions.

get to grass

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

ginny

A stationary engine for hauling coal out of a mine.

gloryhole

To mine using a glory hole.

gob

Waste material in old mine workings, goaf.

goff

Synonym of bump (“sudden movement of underground strata”).

grizzly

A grating used to sieve stones by size, so as to keep stones out of the sluices (in hydraulic mining) or to control stone size in the feed to the ore crusher.

ground bailiff

A superintendent of mines.

gurt

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

H-piece

The part of a plunger pump that contains the valve.

hade

To slope or incline from the vertical.

half-marrow

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

hanger-on

An onsetter.

hanging side

the overhanging side of an inclined or hading vein

hanging wall

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

haul road

A road designed for heavy or bulk transfer of materials by haul trucks.

haul truck

An off-road, heavy-duty dump truck specifically engineered for use in high-production mining and exceptionally demanding construction environments.

helper-up

A boy employed to assist the barrowman out of a dip place.

hod boy

A boy employed to convey coal to wagons in the working place.

hodder

A coal miner who hauls hods from the workface

hoist frame

headframe.

holing

undercutting in a bed of coal in order to bring down the upper mass.

hooker-on

A hanger-on, or onsetter.

horseflesh ore

Bornite.

hush

To send forth a rush of water over (some ground) so as to clear off the soil and other materials overlying, and thus uncover or separate out, ore.

hushing

The use of a heavy discharge of water to uncover a mineral vein or wash ore.

iron ore

A mineral deposit from which iron can be viably extracted.

jenkin

A narrow excavation driven through a pillar of coal.

jeweller's shop

An exceptionally rich pocket or seam of gold-bearing ore, or, of high-quality opal; a find so rich, dazzling, and valuable that it resembles the stock of a jewellery store.

jigging

The act of using a jig; the act of separating ore with a jigger, or wire-bottomed sieve, which is moved up and down in water.

jinny road

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

jud

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

karn

A pile of rocks.

kennel coal

cannel

kettle bottom

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

knits

Small particles of ore.

ledger wall

The wall built under a vein

longwall

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

lue

To sift using a sieve, particularly in mining tin or silver.

lum

A ventilating chimney over the shaft of a mine.

match factor

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

mine car

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

miner's moss

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

mock lead

blende

monton

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

mother of coal

Synonym of fusain (“fossilized charcoal”).

narrow work

The construction of passages, air-shafts, etc.

nether

A trouble; a fault or dislocation in a seam of coal.

nicking

The cutting made by the hewer at the side of the face.

nip-out

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

off-handed

Offhand.

openwork

A quarry; an open cut.

ore car

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

pay dirt

Earth which contains profitable quantities of ore.

permissible

Any tool or device permitted for use in potentially explosive mine environments.

petanque

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

pinch out

A volume of rock or oil trapped or isolated between strata that have pinched it out.

pineapple opal

A large raw opal spheroidal gemstone with pineapple-like projection points

pit frame

A headframe.

pitch mining

The mining of steeply inclined seams of coal.

placer

alluvial; occurring in a deposit of sand or earth on a river-bed or bank, particularly with reference to precious metals such as gold or silver

pony putter

The driver of a pony that draws a mine wagon.

power shovel

A bucket-equipped machine, usually electrically powered, used for digging and loading earth or fragmented rock and for mineral extraction.

prospect

To determine which minerals or metals are present in a location.

quarry

A site for mining stone, such as limestone, or slate.

quarry car

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

ribbed

intercalated with slate; said of a seam of coal.

rid

Loose earth, rubble, etc., on the surface of a quarry which must be removed before digging can begin; rid-work.

ringer

A crowbar.

roke

A measurement of coal ore.

scoop driver

One who operates an automated mining scoop.

scram

To mine for ore on a small scale, especially from mines previously been worked on where most of the ore is believed to have been removed.

seat earth

A bed of clay that underlies a coal seam.

shamble

One of a succession of niches or platforms, one above another, to hold ore which is thrown successively from platform to platform, and thus raised to a higher level.

shear-cake

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

slack

Small coal; coal dust.

slackline

A length of cable, rope, or webbing that hangs loosely from its points of suspension.

sleeping table

A stationary inclined platform on which pulverized ore is washed.

small leader

A boy employed to put small coals to a stowboard.

Smallman clip

A clip used to connect a rope to a tub of coal in order to haul it.

snap tin

A miner's metal lunchbox.

spad

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.

spake

A type of wagon on rails used for carrying workers in and out of a colliery.

stallman

A subcontractor in charge of a stall or working place.

steam shovel

An excavating machine designed to effect a shovelling action through steam power.

stempel

A shelf set into a mineshaft for storing waste material, or for use as a step or support.

stoneman

A miner who makes excavations in hard strata other than coal.

stoping

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

stowing

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

strike a lead

To find a vein of ore.

stull

A framework of timber covered with boards to support rubbish or to protect miners from falling stones.

sturt

A bargain in tribute mining by which the tributor profits.

switch keeper

A worker who attends the switches or passing places on the underground railways.

sylvester

A ratchet device for pulling out pit props.

taker-off

A person employed to unhook the wagons at self-acting inclines.

telluric gold

Gold telluride ore, a gold-bearing mineral where gold is chemically bonded to tellurium.

thill

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

ticketing

A periodic sale of ore in the mining districts, in which buyers wrote their bids upon tickets.

timber drawer

A person employed to remove timber props.

trommel

A revolving buddle or sieve for separating, or sizing, ores.

trumpeting

A channel cut behind the brick lining of a shaft.

tut-work

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

tye

A trough for washing ores.

tying

The act or process of washing ores in a buddle.

van

A shovel used in cleansing ore.

wagoner

One who transports the mined material away from the face in wagons.

wailer

A boy employed to pick out stones, pyrites, etc. remaining in the coal after it is screened.

washing stuff

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

water leader

A person employed to remove water from the horseways and other places.

way-cleaner

A person employed to clean the rails, removing coaldust etc.

wheal

A mine.

whim

A large capstan or vertical drum turned by horse power or steam power, for raising ore or water, etc., from mines, or for other purposes.

wind road

An underground route for ventilation in a mine.

winding tower

headframe.

witts

Tin ore freed from earthy matter by stamping.

wood leader

A person employed to carry wooden props to parts of the mine where they are needed.