{"id":2620,"date":"2023-02-23T08:11:25","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T02:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=2620"},"modified":"2025-03-25T22:58:40","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T17:28:40","slug":"what-is-open-pit-mining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-open-pit-mining\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Open Pit Mining?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>\u00a0About Open Pit Mining:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What is it?<\/strong> Open-pit mining, also <strong>known as opencast mining<\/strong>, is a <strong>surface mining technique <\/strong>that <strong>extracts minerals from an open pit in the ground<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It is the most <strong>common method used<\/strong> worldwide for mineral mining and <strong>does not require extractive methods<\/strong> or <strong>tunnels.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>It is an <strong>appropriate extraction method<\/strong> when <strong>mineral or ore deposits<\/strong> are found relatively <strong>close to the earth&#8217;s surface<\/strong>, which is <strong>overlain by<\/strong> relatively thin vegetation, topsoil, and rock (collectively called <strong>overburden<\/strong>).<\/li>\n<li>It <strong>uses a series of level surfaces or benches<\/strong> to reach the deposit, <strong>forming an open pit<\/strong> that looks <strong>similar to an inverted pyramid.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Open-pit mines undergo constant expansion<\/strong> until all mineral resources are exhausted.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Most<\/strong> of the world&#8217;s annual output of <strong>copper, gold, and iron ore is from open-pit mining <\/strong>operations.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Other commodities<\/strong> produced from open-pit mining <strong>include diamonds, molybdenum, manganese, lead and zinc, uranium,<\/strong> and a variety of industrial minerals, such as borates, talc , etc.<\/li>\n<li>Open-pit mining has <strong>higher productivity, lower operating costs, and is relatively safer <\/strong>than other mining methods.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Environmental effects of open pit mining:<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li>It <strong>consumes enormous amounts of water;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>heavily pollute water and air;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>disfigures landscapes;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>permanently <strong>destroys habitat;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>the pit area retains <strong>elevated risks of erosion and flooding<\/strong> even after pits are exhausted.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1)\u00a0What is Strip mining?<\/h3>\n<p>Strip mining is a mineral-extraction process in which a layer or seam of undesired material (called \u201coverburden\u201d) is removed from the surface of an area to allow efficient access to a desired material existing underneath the layer being stripped. It is a form of surface mining, and it is primarily used to extract material that lays relatively close to the surface.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/world-news\/at-least-two-dead-more-than-50-missing-after-open-pit-mine-collapses-in-china-101677112175530.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>At least two dead, more than 50 missing after open pit mine collapses in China<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Open-pit mining is a surface mining technique that extracts minerals from an open pit in the ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}