Mining Terms

Adit
  A horizontal exit or entrance from the mine
Ante
 Rubbish; rocks containing little or no ore
Assay Office
  Where the ore is analyzed by an assayer
Cage
  A boxlike structure that transports miners to different levels
  along the shaft
Doghouse
  The lunch and break room
Drift
  Horizontal underground road
Incline
  An angled drift
Lode
  A regular vein producing minerals
Motherlode
  A very rich vein producing a wealth of minerals
Mucker
  One who shovels loose rock
Nipper
  One who delivers drill steel
Placer
  A pile of rock deposits washed to settle out the gold
Outcrop
  Ore above ground
Powder Monkey
  One who delivers the dynamite
Prospector
  One who explores an area for rich metals
Shaft
  A hole straight down into the ground
Skip Hoist
  Machine that hauls ore up an incline
Stamps
  Large cylinders containing iron ballsor steel rods which
  crushed the ore to a fine sand
Stope
  The excavation of a large ore body supported by timbers
Sump
  The bottom of the shaft where water collects
Sump Pump
  Pumps the water in the sump out of the mine
Tipple Building
  Where ore is transferred from tram buckets to rail cars
Widowmaker
  The name given to the early pressurized drills that churned up silica dust causing
  the deadly lung disease, silicosis
Winze
  An internal shaft

Back

© Park City Historical Society and Museum