Mining-Prospecting Dictionary

O

ccurrence: Existence or how a mineral is deposited.

Open Interest: The total number of futures contracts, whether purchased or sold, recorded on the sites of NYMEX which are not offset by the opposite transaction or by physical delivery of the metal.
Open Outcry: The method of public auction required for making bids and offers in the trading pits or rings of commodity exchanges.
Open pit: A mine that is entirely on the surface.
Option: A contract which gives the buyer the right but not the obligation to buy or sell a specified quantity of a metal or a metal futures contract at a specified period of time, regardless of the market of that metal or metal futures contract.
Option: An agreement to lease or purchase a mining property.
Ore: Any rock that contains enough mineral to be mined at a profit.
Orebody: A relatively confined ore deposit.
Ore Body: A mineral deposit that can be mined at a profit under existing economic conditions.

Ore Reserves:

Ore: Rock ge

nerally containing metallic or non-metallic minerals that can be mined and processed at a profit.

Ore body: A sufficiently large amount of ore that can be mined economically.
Ore Shoot: An elongated pipelike, ribbonlike, or chimneylike mass of ore within a deposit (usually a vein), representing the more valuable part of the deposit.
Outcrop: A projection of bedrock above the ground surface.
Out-of-the-Money Option: An option with no intrinsic value.
Overburden: Surface waste materials covering a mineral deposit.
Oxide: Any chemical combination with oxygen.
Oxide ore: Mineralized rock in which some of the original minerals have been oxidized. Oxidation tends to make the ore more porous and permits a more complete permeation of cyanide solutions so that minute particles of gold in the interior of the minerals will be readily dissolved.
Oxidize: To combine with oxygen.
Oxidized zone: Portion of ore deposit where oxygen has displaced other non-metallic elements in chemical combination with metals.