| abandoned mine drainage (AMD) |
Drainage flowing from or caused by surface
mining, deep mining or coal refuse piles that is typically highly acidic
with elevated levels of dissolved metals. |
| Abraham Darby |
An English Quaker familiar with both the
brewing industry and the iron industry. He determined that coke was
suitable for producing iron. |
| aeration |
The introduction of air into water by
stiring or mixing. |
| aerobic |
A term refering to processes or organisms
that occur or are active in the presence of oxygen. |
| alkalinity |
The measurement of the ability of water's
capacity to neutralize acids. |
| anaerobic |
A term refering to processes or organisms
that occur or are active in the abscence of oxygen. |
| anoxic limestone draine (ALD) |
An anoxic limestone drain (ALD) is a buried
bed of limestone constructed to intercept subsurface mine water flows.
ALD's are used to prevent contact with atmospheric oxygen and retain carbon
dioxide, which in turn, generates more alkalinity. Sediment ponds
are constructed after an ALD to accumulate the iron oxide precipitates. |
| black lung disease |
A condtion of the lungs that is caused
by the inhalation and deposition of coal dust within the lungs resulting
in violent and uncontrollable coughing. |
| blast furnace |
A tower like furnace which uses a blast
of air forced into the furnace from below to produce the intense heat needed
to separate metals from the impurities in the ore. |
| boom |
A long beam which can be swung laterally
and vertically above its pivot. At the far end cables and a digging
bucket can be mounted. |
| breaker |
A machine which combines coal crushing
and screening. Normally consists of a rotating drum in which coal is broken
by gravity impact against the walls of the drum. |
| breaker boy |
A young boy who worked in the breaker
where he separated slate and rock from the coal. |
| buffer |
The ability to resist changes in pH when
an acid or base is added. For example, alkalinity buffers the stream against
acid mine drainage. However, if the drainage uses up the alkalinity,
the stream loses it's buffering capacity. |
| carbon monoxide |
(CO); A colorless, odorless, highly poisonous
gas produced by the incomplete burning of any carbonaceous material. |
| charcoal |
The residue, primarily carbon, from the
partial combustion of wood or other organic matter. |
| coal |
Coal is a combustible rock of organic
origin composed mainly of carbon (50-98%), hydrogen (3-13%) and oxygen,
with lesser amounts of nitrogen, sulphur and other elements. Some water
is always present, as are grains of inorganic matter that form an incombustible
residue known as ash. |
| coal auger |
(1)A primitive tool resembling a brace
and bit used to drill a hole in the coal in which explosives would be placed.
(2)A special type of continuous miner that consists of a large diameter
screw drill which cuts, transports, and loads the coal onto vehicles or
conveyors. |
| coke |
A hard, dry carbon substance produced
by heating coal to a very high temperature in the absence of air. Coke
is used in the manufacture of iron and steel. |
| collectors |
Aquactic organisms who feed on the bite-sized
suspended particles that are left over by the shredders and scrapers. |
| continuous miner |
A piece of mining equipment which produces
a continuous flow of ore from the working face. |
| contour mining |
A technique of open cut mining in which
coal beds are mined in relatively level benches along a hillside. |
| cutting machine |
A machine, usually used in coal, that
will cut a 10- to 15-cm slot. The slot allows room for expansion of the
broken coal after blasting. |
| detritis |
Freshly dead or partially decomposed organic
material. |
| diffusion |
(1) The intermingling or mixing of the
molecules of two or more substances. (2) The process by which both
ionic and molecular species dissolved in water move from areas of higher
concentration to areas of lower concentration. |
| dissolved oxygen |
The amount of oxygen gas (O2)
dissolved in a given volume of water at a particular temperature and pressure.
Usually expressed in concentrations in parts per million (ppm) or milligrams
per liter (mg/L). |
| diversion well |
A vertical tank filled with limestone
aggregate that generates alkalinity by turbulently mixing and abrading
the limestone into fine particles. |
| dragline |
An excavating machine that uses a bucket
operated and suspended by lines or cables, one of which lowers the bucket
from the boom; the other, from which the name of the machine is derived,
allows the bucket to swing out from the machine or to be dragged toward
the machine to remove overburden above a coal seam. |
| drift mine |
A mine that opens into a horizontal or
practically level seam of coal. This type of mine is generally the
easiest to open as the mine opening enters into the coal outcrop. |
| emphysema |
An abnormal swelling of lung tissue which
causes difficulty in breathing. |
| ferric iron |
An oxidized form of iron (Fe+3).
The precipitate is yellow to red in color. |
| final face |
The exposed area of a coal bed. |
| highwall |
The unexcavated face of exposed overburden
and coal in a surface mine. |
| James Watt |
(1736 -1819) An instrument maker who improved
upon Thomas Newcome's atmospheric steam engine and went on to invent the
first true steam engine. |
| limestone |
A sedimentary rock consisting chiefly
of calcium carbonate primarily in the form of the mineral calcite and with
or without magnesium carbonate. It can be formed through either organic
or inorganic process. Limestone effervesces freely with any common
acid. |
| longwall mining machine |
One of three major underground coal mining
methods currently in use. Employs a steel plow, or rotation drum, which
is pulled mechanically back and forth across a face of coal that is usually
several hundred feet long. The loosened coal falls onto a conveyor for
removal from the mine. |
| macroinvertebrates |
Organisms with no backbone but are large
enough to see with the unaided eye. |
| methane |
(CH4); The most simple of the hydrocarbons
formed naturally from the decay of vegetative matter, similar to that which
formed coal. It is the principal component of natural gas. |
| milligrams per liter (mg/L) |
A unit measure of the concentration of
a component substance measured by the amount of milligrams of that substance
that exists in one liter of a particular liquid which is typically water. |
| nephelometric turbidity units (NTU's) |
A unit measure of turbidity in which the
intensity of light scattered by the sample under defined conditions is
compared to the light scattered by a standard reference suspension under
the same conditions. |
| nipper |
A young boy whose job it was to open the
mining doors whenever a mule-drawn mine car passed through. Also
called a trapper or door boy. |
| open limestone channels (OLC) |
A limestone-lined ditch that increases
oxidation and generates alkalinity through limestone dissolution. |
| ore |
The naturally occurring material from
which a mineral or minerals of economic value can be extracted. |
| overburden |
Layers of soil and rock covering a coal
bed. Overburden is removed prior to surface mining and replaced after the
coal is removed. |
| oxidation |
A natural chemical reaction that occurs
in the process of oxygen. |
| pan line |
A conveyor system which transports the
coal to coal cars or a belt conveyor to be transported out of the mine. |
| parts per million (ppm) |
The unit measure of the concentration
of a component substance. For example a 1 ppm concentration of iron
is 1 part iron to 999,999 parts of other material. It also is equal
to mg/L. |
| Passive Treatment |
The use of naturally occuring chemical
and biological reactions to effectively and economically remove contaminants
from mine drainage. |
| pH |
The negative log10 of the hydrogen-ion
activity in solution which is a measure of the acidity or basicity of a
solution.The pH scale is from 0-14. A low pH is acidic where as a
high pH is basic and 7 being neutral. |
| photosynthesis |
A complex process by which plants use
carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight to produce oxygen, carbohydrates, and
other nutrient molecules. |
| pit |
The area exposed to extract coal by removing
the overburden. |
| precipitate |
A substance which separates from a solution
as a solid by the action of chemical reagents, temperature, pH, etc. |
| pyrite |
A hard, heavy, shiny, yellow mineral,
FeS2 or iron disulfide, generally in cubic crystals. Also called iron pyrites,
fool's gold, sulfur balls. Iron pyrite is the most common sulfide found
in coal mines. |
| reclamation |
Restoring the land to approximate pre-mining
conditions or to other viable land use. |
| refuse piles |
Mounds of generally poor quality coal-like
materials located where coal was prepared for market. |
| reverberatory furnace |
A furnace with a shallow hearth, usually
non-regenerative, having a roof that deflects the the flame and heat downwards
toward the hearth or the surface of the charge so that the material to
be smelted would not need to be mixed with the fuel which would result
in impurities. |
| riffle areas |
A shoal, reef, or rocky obstruction in
a stream, producing a ripple or a stretch of shallow, rapid, or choppy
water. |
| rock dust |
Finely ground limestone applied to the
walls, ceiling, and floor of a mine to suppress potential fires. |
| roof bolt |
A long steel bolt driven into the roof
of underground excavations to support the roof, preventing and limiting
the extent of roof falls. The unit consists of the bolt (up to 4 feet long),
steel plate, expansion shell, and nut. The use of roof bolts eliminates
the need for timbering by fastening together, or "laminating," several
weaker layers of roof strata to build a "beam." |
| room and pillar method |
A method of mining flat-lying ore deposits
in which the mined-out area, or rooms, are separated by pillars of approximately
the same size. |
| scrapers |
Aquatic organisms that have mouth parts
specifically adapted for removing algae from rocks and vegetation. |
| shredders |
Aquatic organisms that tear apart decaying
plant material with powerful mouth parts. |
| smelting |
A process in which molten metal or molten
slag is produced by separating the pure metal from extraneous or impure
substances with the use of heat. |
| spent mushroom compost |
Compost used by the mushroom industry
consisting of hay, straw, horse and chicken manure, and gypsum that has
been exhausted of the proper nutrients to grow mushrooms. |
| spoiled |
The act of removing overburden from its
original location to gain access to the ore or mineral in surface mining. |
| stripping shovel |
A machine which is mounted on crawler
tracks similar to a bulldozer and has an especially long boom with a bucket
that shovels the overburden instead of dragging and scooping allowing it
to reach further and pile higher. |
| subsidence |
The gradual sinking, or sometimes abrupt
collapse, of the rock and soil layers into an underground mine. Structures
and surface features above the subsidence area can be affected. |
| sulfuric acid |
A highly corrosive liquid (H2SO4) which
is formed upon weathering of pyrite. |
| surface mining |
A mine in which the coal lies near the
surface and can be extracted by removing the covering layers of rock and
soil. |
| Thomas Newcome |
(1663- 1729) A craftsman who built
the first atmospheric steam engine which provided a continuous source of
power to drive a pump. |
| vertical flow system |
Vertical flow systems (VFS) consist of
a treatment cell (pond) filled with limestone and sometimes topped with
a layer of organic matter.Water travels vertically through the decaying
matter and limestone removing oxygen and generating alkalinity, respectively. |
| wetland |
Land that is permanently or periodically
inundated with water sufficient to establish hydrophytic vegetation and
anaerobic soil conditions. |
| working face |
Any place in a mine where material is
extracted during a mining cycle. |
| yellow boy |
An orange/red residue and staining which
is iron in its solid form. |
