Mining Terminology F

• Fissure: A broad crack, break or fracture in rocks.

• Fixed Assets: Possessions one has like that of land, buildings, machinery etc, as opposed to current assets, are not likely to be turned into cash during the standard business cycle.

• Float: Pieces of rock that have been broken off and moved from their first location due to natural forces such as frost or glacial action.

• Flotation: A milling process where valuable and precious mineral particles are induced to become attached to float and bubbles while the rest sink.

• Flow sheet: An illustration that shows the sequence of operations, gradually, by which ore is treated in a milling, concentration or smelting process.

• Flux: A chemical substance that responds with gangue minerals to form slags, which are liquid at furnace temperature and low enough in concentration to float on the molten bath of metal or matte.

• Fluxgate magnetometer: This is an instrument that is used in geophysics to measure the entire magnetic field.

• Fold: The wrinkling or bending of rock strata.

• Footwall: The rock on the base of a vein or ore structure.

• Fracture: A fracture in the rock, the opening that allows mineral-bearing solutions to go in. There is also a cross-fracture which is a small fracture that expands at approximately right angles to the direction of the main fractures.

• Free milling: Ores of gold or silver from which the precious metals can be recovered by concentrating methods without having to utilize means of pressure leaching or other chemical treatment.