In
surface mining
Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...
, stripping ratio or strip ratio refers to the amount of waste (or
overburden
In mining, overburden (also called waste or spoil) is the material that lies above an area that lends itself to economical exploitation, such as the rock, soil, and ecosystem that lies above a coal seam or ore body. Overburden is distinct from tai ...
) that must be removed to release a given ore quantity.
It is a number or ratio that express how much waste is mined per unit of ore. The units of a stripping ratio can vary between mine types. For example, in coal mining the stripping ratio is commonly referred to as volume/weight.
,
whereas in metal mining, stripping ratio is unitless and is expressed as weight/weight.
A stripping ratio can be expressed as a ratio or as a number.
Equations
The equations for stripping ratio are,
for coal:
:
for metal:
:
where volume is typically expressed as m
3 or yd and weight is typically expressed as tonne or ton.
Use
It is common for the stripping ratio to be used as an indicator of economic value for an open pit mine.
This is because removal of waste is a cost to the mine whereas mining ore leads to revenue. A stripping ratio is commonly used as a quick method to evaluate a mine’s or a design’s value. High stripping ratios are not desired because they are indicating that large amounts of waste must be moved to access ore.
See also
*
Open-pit mining
Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow.
This form of mining ...
References
{{mining-stub
Surface mining