Mining-Prospecting Dictionary

• T abular: A plate-like structure in certain minerals.
• Tail: The string of gold particles left in a pan after the material has been concentrated by washing.
• Tailings: The waste materials left over and ejected from the outlet of processing equipment after the valuable minerals have been removed. The neutralized material discarded after the economically recoverable metals have been extracted from the ore by a Mill or by Heap Leaching.
• Tailings Dam: A natural or man-made area suitable for depositing the material that remains after the treatment of ore.
• Talus: Broken rock at the bottom of a slope.
• Tamping: Compacting material over an explosive range.
• Tectonic: Pertaining to the forces involved in the broad architecture of the outer part of the Earth, that is, the regional assembling of structural or deformational features.
• Tenor: The relative value or mineral content of an ore.
• Terrace: A relatively flat area lying between the various levels of bench gravels.
• Thickener; A vessel or apparatus for reducing the proportion of water in a pulp by means of sedimentation.
• Thrust: An overriding movement of one crustal unit over another, as in thrust faulting.
• Till: An unstratified and unconsolidated sediment deposited by glaciers.
• Time Value: Any amount by which an option premium exceeds the option's intrinsic value.
• Topography: The physical features of the surface in an area.
• Ton: A unit of weight equal to 2,000 pounds.
• Trace Amount: A concentration of a substance that is detectable but too minute for accurate quantitative determination.
• Trend: Direction or bearing of any rock formation.
• Trommel: A heavy-duty revolving drum and screen, utilized for washing, breaking up, and removing larger rocks and retrieving the sands and pebbles for processing in other placer recovery equipment
• Troy ounce: The most common unit of weight used to measure quantities of precious metals. One troy ounce equals 1.09714 avoirdupois ounces or 31.103 grams. Of a fineness of 999.9 parts per 1,000 parts.
• Troy weight: System of weights for the precious metals.
• Tuff: A general term for all pyroclastic rocks, not to be confused with tufa.