Mining engineering

Mining Engineering is a field that involves many of the other engineering disciplines as applied to extracting and processing minerals from a naturally occurring environment.

The need for mineral extraction and production is an essential activity of any technically proficient society. As minerals are produced from within a naturally occurring environment, disturbance of the environment as a result of mineral production is a given. Modern mining engineers must therefore be concerned not only with the production and processing of mineral commodities, but also with the mitigation of damage or changes to an environment as a result of that production and processing.

An open pit copper mine in South Australia

The two primary types of mine are underground mines and open-pit mines. Minerals that exist mostly underground (eg. coal, gold etc.) are generally recovered using the underground mining process. Minerals like iron ore, limestone, manganese ore, etc. are mostly recovered from the surface downwards in opencast mining.

Engineering disciplines that are closely related to mining engineering are:

• Civil engineering
• Environmental engineering
• Geotechnical engineering
• Hydraulic engineering
• Electrical engineering
• Structural Engineering

Specialized areas of mining engineering involve extraction of minerals from underwater mines, seawater, in-situ retorting of rock, and underground gasification.

Resources

• Wikipedia: Gold mining in the United States
• Wikipedia: Mining engineering
• Wikipedia: Mining
• Wikipedia: Category:Resource extraction
• Wikipedia: Prospecting
• Wikipedia: Extractive metallurgy
• Wikipedia: Mineral rights

See also

• School:Engineering

External links

• South Dakota School of Mines and Technology