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"Active" Mining Projects in the EA Process
These projects only include mining projects which were under active consideration by the Environmental Assessment Office during the last quarter. |
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Advanced Exploration Projects
Exploration projects where there is a preliminary definition of the mass and geometric configuration of reserves (i.e., three dimensional outline) and some degree of knowledge or estimation of the composite value of the minerals in these reserves. In metals exploration reserves at this stage of project development are often drill inferred with in-ground-values estimated in terms of grade and tonnage. In coal and industrial mineral deposits, in-ground-values are stated in terms of grade-qualities (such as, thermal coal, chemical grade lime, etc.) and tonnages. Although these projects cover a wide range of completed effort and detailed assessment, they are generally positioned between the near pre-feasibility stage and the near bankable feasibility stage. |
Campaign Mining
Series of sequential mining operations or activities on a particular deposit, often interrupted by the passage of time (weeks, months, years), meant to build a sufficient stockpile of ore to supply a continuous mineral processing operation. This style of mining is most common in industrial mineral mining which also leads to the term "Intermittent mining operations". |
Clean Coal
Clean coal or washed coal is produced by a cleaning process (e.g., coal output from a coal wash plant). Generally the coal is washed free of clay, shale and other deleterious substances for transport to users. |
Concentrates - Metal (Copper. Lead, Zinc, etc.)
Enriched ore of copper, lead, zinc, etc. after the removal of waste in a beneficiation mill. Typically, ore from the mine is crushed, ground and run through a beneficiation process to produce concentrate. |
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Construction Aggregates
Includes all construction materials which are comprised predominantly of sand, gravel, crushed rock, clay and other naturally occurring and generally low-value (less than $20 per tonne at the pit/quarry gate) fine grained materials. Construction aggregates are generally sourced from unconsolidated to loosely consolidated material, with the exception of crushed rock (which is often only used because of the unavailability of unconsolidated material that will meet specifications). These materials are generally used in the construction industry, as the predominant aggregate component in concrete and asphalt and for fill and/or load-bearing purposes. "Construction aggregate" is West Coast terminology, roughly equivalent to the Federal Government's term, "Structural materials". These minerals do not include the generally higher value-added, processed industrial minerals where major use is by industry sectors outside the construction aggregate industry. |
Direct Employees
Employees working for a mineral producing or processing enterprise. |
Dredged - Aggregate
Aggregate generally comprised of sand, gravel and soil which has been removed by machine from under water, for example, from rivers, lakes and oceans. (Sand and gravel dredged from the Fraser River in BC is an important source of aggregate for the Lower Mainland market.) |
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Exploration
All activities and support, including capital expenditures, which are carried out (on or off minesite) to search for, discover, and/or carry out the delineation of a mineral deposit to establish its potential economic value and to justify further work. Typically, activities include prospecting, regional mineral reconnaissance, mapping and remote sensing, geology, geochemistry, geophysics and drilling and rock work including trenching, bulk sampling, "trial" mining, etc. See also NRCan's Survey definition for Exploration expenditures: http://mmsd1.mms.nrcan.gc.ca/mmsd/exploration/default_e.asp#definitions |
Export FOB Values
Refers to the "freight on board the ship" value of the mineral commodity, which includes the cost of rail shipping and transfer at port to ship's hold. |
Gas By-Products
Those hydrocarbon components recovered from natural gas as liquids. These liquids include, but are not limited to,. ethane, propane, butanes, pentanes plus and condensate and may include small quantities of non-hydrocarbons such as, sulphur. |
Indirect Employees
Employees working in an enterprise which directly supports and owes its existence to a mineral producing or processing enterprise. This number is estimated on a ratio of one direct to one indirect employee on average throughout the industry, based on tentative verification from BC's input/output model. |
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Induced Employees
Employees who neither work in a "direct" nor an "indirect" enterprise but are employed as a direct result of a mineral producing or processing enterprise (e.g. a teller at a bank who is hired because of additional banking activity in a town, resulting from a mine opening). This number is estimated on a ratio of one direct to one induced employee on average throughout the industry based on tentative verification from BC's input/output model. |
Industrial Minerals
Include all non-metallic and non-fuel minerals. This group includes gemstones and excludes construction aggregates (structural materials). They comprise rocks, minerals and other naturally occurring substances or mineral waste streams, of economic value. |
Metallurgical Coal (Met Coal)
A coal which can be used to produce metallurgical coke which has a high compressive strength at elevated temperatures for use in metallurgical furnaces, not only as fuel, but also to support the weight of the charge (particularly in iron and steel making). |
Mine Development
Includes all activities carried out on a producing mine or mining project committed to production to outline, block out and gain access to the ore and prepare it for production. It also includes drilling, rock work and support to extend known mineral deposits in production or committed to production. See also NRCan's definition of Mine Development expenditures: http://mmsd1.mms.nrcan.gc.ca/mmsd/exploration/default_e.asp#definitions |
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Minegate Price
Real transactional-price or estimated price of ore, concentrate, mineral or other mineral product, purchased on the minesite i.e., before the mineral product is transported through the "gate" marking the boundary of the minesite. |
Mineral Aggregates
Natural and manufactured industrial mineral and rock materials that provide bulk and strength in Portland cement concrete, bituminous concrete mixes, and plaster or stucco surfaces. They may also provide special characteristics such as thermal and acoustical insulation, weight, surface textures, abrasion resistance, and impermeability to various concrete products and mixes. |
Mining Operation
Any excavation from which mineral substances were taken during the period denoted, where the corporate intent was to make an operating profit or build continuously toward a profitable enterprise. |
Open Pit Mining
A form of operation designed to extract minerals that lie near the surface. Waste, or overburden is first removed and the mineral is broken and loaded. (Similar terms: Opencast Mining, Open Cut Mining) |
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Ore
A natural mineral compound of the elements of which one at least is a metal (e.g., copper, lead, molybdenum, zinc, gold). The term is applied more loosely to all metalliferous rock and occasionally to the compounds of nonmetallic substances and industrial minerals such as, sulphur ore. In economic terms, an ore is a mineral of sufficient value as to quality and quantity that it may be mined at a profit. |
Pits and Quarries
In this web site, Pits and Quarries generally refer to the depression left on the earth's surface from which construction aggregates have been taken out. Typically, sand and gravel and other unconsolidated or loosely consolidated mineral materials are extracted with mechanical digging and moving equipment from pits. Where crushed rock is needed because of the absence of sand and gravel in a region or a high quality aggregate is specified for a particular project(s), rock may be extracted from open or surface quarries; typically, where drilling and blasting are required. |
Refinery
A plant in which metal or valuable mineral is extracted from an ore or concentrate. Usually such a plant would be described as an extraction plant or chemical treatment plant. By comparison, refining is the purification of crude metallic products which produces nearly pure metal product. |
Smelter
Any metallurgical operation in which metal is separated by fusion from those impurities with which it may be chemically combined or physically mixed, such as in ores. The smelting process is distinct from roasting, sintering, fire refining and other pyrometallurgical operations. The two most important operations are reduction smelting which produces molten metal and molten slag and matte smelting which produces molten matte and molten slag. Slag is a waste product and matte is the resulting metallic sulphide mixture containing the valuable minerals (e.g., copper, lead, nickel, etc.), ready for refining. |
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Structural Materials
Term includes essentially the same mineral materials as Construction Aggregates. (Construction Aggregates is more commonly used in West Coast jurisdictions and Structural Materials, by Natural Resources Canada.) Includes all construction materials (natural, crushed and in aggregate form) which are comprised predominantly of sand, gravel, crushed rock, clay and other naturally occurring fine grained materials, as well as various other minerals and rocks used for structural purposes such as dimension stone and rip-rap. These materials are generally used for fill and/or load-bearing purposes and do not include ornamental, landscaping or other beautifying minerals and rocks. |
Thermal Coal
Coal used for burning in thermal plants to generate electricity. Thermal coals are generally in the bituminous quality range, having a lower heat content (joules or BTU's British thermal units) than metallurgical coals, but a higher heat content than lower grade coals, such as lignite. |
Underground Mining
Extraction of ores, rocks and minerals from below the surface of the ground. Generally access to the underground mine workings is through an adit (entrance in the side of a hill), down a mine shaft or through some other tunnel configuration. |
Unwrought - Metal (Aluminum, Zinc, etc.)
Raw metal products such as aluminum and zinc which have not been hammered into shape or worked into a finished condition.
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