Mining-Prospecting Dictionary

• S accharoidal: Said of a granular or crystalline texture resembling that of a loaf of sugar.
• Saddle: Formation shaped like a saddle or anticline.
• Salting: Intentional or unintentional enrichment of a sample.
• Sampling: The process of selecting and taking samples from a mineral deposit.
• Second-foot: A unit of water measure equal to one cubic foot per second, or 448.83 gallons per minute.
• Secondary: An alteration of an original formation or deposit.
• Sediment: Eroded material transported and deposited by water movement.
• Sedimentary: Formed by the deposition of eroded material. Pertaining to sediments laid down by rivers and streams.
• Segregated Account: A special account used to hold and separate customers' assets from those of the broker or company.
• Semi-autogenous grinding (SAG): A method of grinding rock into fine powder whereby the grinding media consist of larger chunks of rock and steel balls.
• Sericitic: Pertaining to a hydrothermal, deuteric or metamorphic process involving the introduction of, alteration to, or replacement by sericitic muscovite.
• Settlement: The daily price at which the clearinghouse settles all accounts between clearing members for each contract month. Settlement prices are used to determine both margin calls and invoice prices for deliveries. The term also refers to a price established by the clearing organization to calculate account values and determine margins for those positions still held and not yet liquidated.
• Shaft: A vertical accessway to a mine. Shafts are used for the movement of personnel and materials, including ore and non-mineralized rock.
• Shaft: A vertical passageway to an underground mine for moving personnel, equipment, supplies and material including ore and waste rock.
• Sheeted Veins: A group of closely spaced, distinct parallel fractures filled with mineral matter and separated by layers of barren rock.
• Shear zone: Area in which rock has been crushed, shattered or displaced. Formed by combined action of rivers and oceans.
• Shieve: Common term for a pulley.
• Shotcrete: A mixture made of course aggregate up to 2 cm thick, applied by pneumatic pressure through a specially adapted hose and used as a fireproofing agent and as a sealing agent to prevent weathering of mine timbers and roadways.
• Siliceous: Of, relating to, or derived from silica; containing or rese mbling silica or a silicate; silicic. Also spelled silicious.
• Sill: An intrusive sheet of igneous rock.
• Silicification: The introduction of, or replacement by, silica, generally resulting in the formation of fine-grained quartz, chalcedony, or opal, which may fill pores and replace existing minerals.
• Siltstone: An indurated silt having the texture and composition of shale but lacking its fine lamination or fissility; a massive mudstone in which the silt predominates over clay; a nonfissile silt shale. It tends to be flaggy, containing hard, durable, generally thin layers, and often showing various primary current structures. Claystone.
• Siltites: An indurated silt having the texture and composition of shale but lacking its fine lamination of fissility; a massive mudstone in which the silt predominates over clay. It tends to be flaggy, containing hard, durable, generally thin layers, and often showing various primary current structures. Also known as siltstone.
• Single jack: A light hammer used for drilling holes by hand.
• Skim-bar: A superficial, thin layer of gold-bearing sand and gravel that accumulated on the surface of river gravel deposits.
• Slip: Refers to displacement along a fault.
• Slope: An inclined entry to underground workings.
• Slurry: A mixture of crushed and finely ground solids with water.
• Smelting: Reducing metallic ores in a furnace.
• Smelting: A metallurgical operation in which metal is separated from impurities by a process that includes fusion.
• Specific gravity: The relative weight of a mineral as compared to the weight of an equal volume of water.
• Specimen: A selected piece of rock or ore taken for examination or display.
• Speculator: A person who trades in metals, either futures or physicals, for a purpose other than hedging.
• Sphalerite: A yellow, brown, or black isometric mineral. It is a widely distributed ore of zinc, commonly associated with galena in veins and other deposits.
• Spiral concentrator: A revolving drum or pan with an interior section made of spiral riffles, used for gravity concentration of heavy minerals.
• Spot Price: The current price in the physical market for immediate delivery of gold. Sometimes referred to as the cash price.
• Spread: The price at which a commodity or security will change hands if an option is exercised.
• Stamps: Piston-driven rock crushing rods.
• Stockwork: A lattice-like network or ore veinlets in fractured rock.
• Stope: An area in an underground mine where ore is mined. A drift working above the main mine level.
• Stratified: A formation having banded layers. or beds.
• Stratum / Strata: A bed or layer of rock; strata, more than one layer.
• Striated: Having very fine parallel grooves or scratches.
• Strike Fault: A fault whose strike is parallel to the strike of the strata.
• Strike Length: The longest horizontal dimension of an ore body or zone of mineralization.
• Stringer: A narrow ore vein or veinlet.
• Stripping: Removal of overburden or waste rock .
• Stripping Ratio: In an open pit mine, large quantities of nonmineralized rock often cover up the ore and must be removed. The Stripping Ratio is the number of tons of non-mineralized material removed per ton of ore mined.
• Structure: The general form and type of rock formation.
• Sulphide ore: A sub-group of refractory ore - mineralized rock in which much of the gold is encapsulated in sulphides and is not readily amenable to dissolution by cyanide solutions associated with sulphide minerals (primarily pyrite) that have not been oxidized. Some sulphide ore may require autoclaving or roasting prior to milling.
• Sump: A hole sunk below a mine operating area to collect water seepage. Surf washer: A small sluice that is placed so that the incoming surf can run up and down the trough, washing material from a hopper down over riffles.
• Syncline: A folded rock formation that dips downward.