Mining Terminology B

• Back: Known as the roof or ceiling of an underground opening.

• Backfill: Waste material that is used to load an empty space that is caused by mining an ore body.

• Background: Small amounts of radioactivity not because of irregular quantities of radioactive minerals that are close by, but rather because of cosmic rays and a small amount of residual radioactivity in the surrounding area.

• Back sample: Chips of rock that can be found from the roof or back of an opening in the ground for the idea of determining the grade.

• Backwardation: A circumstance when the currency or spot price of a metal is at a top point above the price of the metal for delivery at an upcoming date.

• Ball mill: A steel cylinder filled with steel balls into which crushed ore is fed. The ball mill is rotated, causing the balls to cascade and grind the ore.

• Banded iron formation: A bedded deposit of iron minerals.

• Basalt: An extrusive volcanic rock that is mainly made up of plagioclase, pyroxene a well as some olivine.

• Basal till: Unsorted glacial fragments at the bottom of the dirt column where it comes into contact with the bedrock underneath

• Basement rocks: Ancient underlying rock mass. In most cases refers to rocks of the Precambrian age which might be covered by rocks that are younger.

• Base camp: Headquarters of operations from where exploration activity is carried out.

• Base metal: Non precious metal of any sort.

• Basic rocks: Igneous rocks that are moderately low in silica and which are mainly made up of dark colored minerals.

• Batholith: A big mass of igneous rock that goes down to great depth and the top part has a dome shape to it.

• Bauxite: A rock made up of hydrous aluminum oxides.

• Bedding: a set up of sedimentary rocks in layers.

• Beneficiate: Refers to enriching or concentrating and is in most cases put in to the preparation of iron ore for smelting.

• Bentonite: Clay that has a great capacity for absorbing water to which swells in view of that.

• Bessemer: An iron ore that has a very low amount of phosphorus in it. 

• Bio-leaching: A method for recovering metals from low-grade ores through the dissolving of these in a solution and the solution there is bacterial action. 

• Biotite: Plate looking magnesium iron mica and can be frequently found in igneous rocks.

• Bit: The end part of a drill that cuts that is in most cases made out of a very hard material like that of industrial tungsten carbide or diamonds.

• Blackjack: A term utilized for sphalerite (zinc sulphide).

• Black smoker: Volcanic vent found in areas of active ocean floor spreading, through which sulphide-laden fluids escape.

• Blaster: A mine employee that is in charge of priming, loading and the detonation of the blast holes. 

• Blast furnace: A reaction vessel in which varied charges of oxide ores, fluxes and fuels are blown with an incessant blast of hot air and oxygen-enriched air for the chemical decrease of metals to their metallic state.

• Blast hole: A drill hole in a mine that is filled with explosives in order to blast a certain amount of rock loose. 

• Blister copper: A simple form of copper produced in a smelter and that then needs to be refined more before it can be utilized for industrial purposes. 

• Block caving: A cheap process of mining in where bigger blocks of ore are under cut and this causes the ore to break or to cave underneath its weight. 

• Boom: A telescope type of hydraulically powered steel arm on which drifters, man baskets and hydraulic hammers are placed on top of.

• Box hole: A little opening or rise that is driven on top of a drift for the reason of drawing ore from a stope as well as to allow access to it.

• Break: Occasionally utilized to explain a large scale area shear zone or structural fault.

• Breast: The face in a mine and is typically restricted to a stope.

• Breccia: A rock that has angular fragments that are enclosed by an accumulation of fine grained minerals.

• Broken reserves: The ore that has been blasted open but that has not yet been taken up to the surface.

• Brunton compass: A pocket compass that has a reflector and sights and that is used for looking at lines, measuring dip and carrying out initial surveys.

• Bulk mining: A large-scale, modern technique of mining and that involves thousands of tonnes of ore that are taken up to surface on a daily basis.

• Bulk sample: A large sample of mineralized rock, normally hundreds of tonnes, chosen in a way that it represents the ore body that is being sampled. This is also utilized to determine metallurgical features.

• Bullion: Precious metals such as gold or silver that is shaped into bars or ingots.

• Bull markets: Term that is utilized to explain the condition of the financial markets when the prices of shares are increasing. 

• Bull quartz: The term that prospectors utilize for white, coarse grained, barren quartz.

• Byproduct: This consists of a secondary metal or mineral product that is recovered in the milling process.