Strip Mining

Strip mining is a kind of surface mining. The ore is very near to the surface of the land but has one or more layers of rock and filth on top of it. To mine the ore, these layers have to be removed.

The steps in strip mining are similar to open-pit mining. The steps are:

• The trees and bushes are pushed down through bulldozers.

• This waste, along with the filth or sand under it, is taken to a close area and dumped.

• Lots of minute holes are drilled from the rock that is above the coal or mineral bed [vein]

• Explosives are put in the holes and blazed. This breaks up the rock which is taken to the dumping area.

• When the coal or mineral is found, it may be broken up by the blazing. The size of the chunks is important because the miners don't normally want it in minute pieces. They usually want it in pieces that are capable to be moved with big machinery.

• This mining is done in elongated, narrow strips. When the ore is done in one strip, the miners start to create another strip next to it. The waste, filth, and rock that they take off of the top of the next strip is put on top of the last one. This is recurring until the last strip is done and the waste from the primary strip is brought back to fill it.

Strip mining, like other types of surface mining, finishes in hurting the area around the mine. The rock, gravel, trees, plants, and filth are dumped in regions round the mine. When it rains, this runs over the land and into watercourse and rivers. The rain pushes the mine filth on top of the region topsoil and buries it. The streams lands up being blocked and rivers flood. Water is impure by the flooding.

The mined land was normally ruined, too. There were no vegetation left. The topper most layer of the soil was bulldozed under the rock. It became the cheap and swift way to mine awaiting the U.S. Government made mining firms fix [regain] the land when the mining was done.

To regain land, mining firms have to fix the land and make it like it was prior to. With strip mining, waste was pushed onto the final strip mined. This lands up making a whole bunch of rows that require to be leveled when mining is done. The mining firm has bulldozers flatten the elevated strips until they are all even. Topsoil is bulldozed over the top of the whole thing and trees and grasses are planted.