Talk:Open-pit mining

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I've seen and heard various conflicting reports that say that Chuquicamata in Chile or that the Kennecott Copper Mine in Utah are the largest open-put mines in the world. Here in Utah, we say that Kennecott is the largest open-pit mine in the world, but it seems that Chuquicamata also makes this claim. Can anybody confirm one way or the other which is true? bob rulz 10:47, August 7, 2005 (UTC)

Nevermind, I've done some additional research and it seems that Kennecott Mine in Utah is indeed the largest open-put mine in the world. bob rulz 10:49, August 7, 2005 (UTC)

Why not share your sources of some additional research with us. Vsmith 17:05, 7 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Okay, I will. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] and [6] (in the Did you Know? section) all say that the Bingham Canyon mine (Kennecott Copper Mine) is the largest open-pit mine in the world. Of what I found, only [7], [8], and the numerous Wikipedia mirrors said that the one in Chile was the largest. This thread on the discussion of the largest open-pit mine in the world gives conflicting views. bob rulz 07:21, August 14, 2005 (UTC)

Kennecott Copper Mine is deeper, Chuquicamata enfolds a larger area

Surely largest should be measured as the highest volume extracted as compared to the origional ground surface? Other measurements like deepest and longest should not be counted as largest. Htaccess 05:29, 19 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I don't agree. I would have assumed in reading it that 'largest' meant largest surface area. There is some ambiguity in how you define this of course. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.232.250.50 (talk) 17:55, 19 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Funny, as I got back from a trip to Hibbing, Minnesota where they said the Hull-Rust Mine is the largest open pit in the World Vohod 21:18, 19 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I am from Hibbing and people up there do say that Hull-Rust-Mahoning Mine is the largest open pit mine in the world. After looking around a bit I see some publications say it is the largest open pit "Iron" mine in the world. Who knows for certain. Digdugsmug 01:56, 24 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It all depends on the definition of "largest open pit mine". We can classify open pits by the surface area affected, the total volume extracted, the total tonnage extracted, the total volume of the open pit, the total amount of ore extracted, the depth of the pit and so on. It is important to state which metric applies to the mine you are referencing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Falcorn (talk • contribs) 20:25, 20 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

How do pits like Telfer and the Super Pit gold mine in Western Australia compare in size to those listed? Htaccess 05:29, 19 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

• The Super Pit, when completely worked out, will be "3.8 kilometres long, 1.35km wide and go down to a depth of more than 500m" [9]. Does this help? Sliggy 00:41, 14 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The Superpit is a baby compared to the ones in Chile and to Bingham Canyon. However, people are forgetting that a lot of coal mines are worked by strip mining, which would if you ignore the fact they are backfilled, qualify them as the largest in the world. Odds are, it's one in Russia. Rolinator 15:19, 27 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I put the following disambiguation line at the top of the article:

This is an article about a specific type of surface mining. For a more general treatment, see that article.

However, it seems to me that a better solution might be to just merge the two articles. However, the surface mining article does state that open-pit mining is a kind of surface mining. --Smithfarm 09:48, 30 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think that the articles should be merged. Upon reading the other article, I noticed that some of the criticisms I’ve had about this article (such as my suggestion to add more about the environmental impacts) can also be applied to the surface-mining article as well. If the articles were merged, the environmental impact section could encompass many types of mining, since the impacts may be very similar in all cases.Falcanta (talk) 04:27, 8 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I've never heard of the term 'open cast'. I live in a region which contains a very large number of open cut coal mines, and I have worked in and around mines. I had never heard of open cast until I saw what I thought was a typo in the description of a photo in the Australia article.

Is open cast really a valid term, and if so, what is the etymology of 'cast'? This sounds remarkably as if someone has mis-heard 'open cut' and taken it from there. --Athol Mullen 23:06, 29 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Opencast is the term used in British English. I believe it means the same thing as 'open cut' or 'open-pit'.62.31.12.18 01:03, 13 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I think you are right. As a Brit the only term I had heard for this type of mine, before looking up this entry, was 'opencast'. Usually written as one word, I think. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.232.250.50 (talk) 17:47, 19 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The photo of the coal mine in Germany looks to me like a strip mine rather than an open pit mine. Perhaps it should be put instead in the Surface mining article under "area strip mining." Anyone know about this mine?Plazak 23:35, 25 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The photo of the German definitely looks like a strip mining operation. Definitely not an open pit mine. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.215.43.106 (talk) 06:49, 14 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"These seats are usually on 30000 metre or 60 metre levels" Could it have meant 30 metres instead of 30000? It might be vandalism.

Image work done. Unfortunately, from the best I can tell it seems the German word "Tagebau" was mistranslated, as the term is used more accurately for surface mining than for just open-pit mining (I don't read german well, but there is a clear link to "Appalachian Mountaintop Removal" in it. It's quite possible the distinction between open-pit and strip mining does not exist in other languages, or as it may be the case, variants of English. And as a result, all instances of Tagebau in titles were at some point mistranslated as "open-pit", rather than "surface" (or in this case, "strip mine"). I do read Spanish, and the Spanish wikipedia does have words for each type BUT it seems all the links for surface mining lead to open pit, not surface! Morgan Riley (talk) 15:13, 20 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

It says on the page that the BigHole reached a depth of more than 1,000 meters. Is that correct? As far as I know the actual OPEN MINE at Kimberley reached a depth of less than 300 meters. The parts that did reach deeper were underground mining efforts and not open mining. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.75.103.73 (talk) 09:35, 26 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There appears to be lots of claims about the size of mines, largest, second largest etc. Very few of these have any referencing to back up these claims. I would suggest that unless these claims are substantiated the statement is removed for the sake of NPOV. —Preceding Comment added by Nshimbi (talk • contribs) 09:55, 10 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The list almost warrants a list in itself, List of open-pit mines.--kelapstick (talk) 17:12, 10 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

is out —Preceding unsigned comment added by 222.155.243.148 (talk) 09:00, 6 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hi. Does anyone know what are the top open pit mining companies that are publicly traded in the U.S., Canada or Europe? Preferribly industrial minerals, but I could use ANY open pit mining company, irrespective of the mineral (or metal). The important criteria is that a significant or major part of the company's business be from open pit mining. Any insight would be very helpful.--Mr. DASS (talk) 03:23, 29 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Taseko Mines Canada is publicly traded and fits your description. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Falcorn (talk • contribs) 20:30, 20 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry I´m not a regular contributor, but I noticed a factual error in the Extraction section.

"Ore which has been processed is known as tailings, and is generally a slurry." is incorrect.

Tailings are the waste material left over as described in the Wikipedia section for tailings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailings

Sorry I don´t have time to edit myself. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 190.222.24.170 (talk) 18:02, 8 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Me 2.. I've FOUND another factual error.. in ? OPEN PIT MINES Re: This list includes only those large open-pit mines for which an article exists in Wikipedia. Huh ...? What ever happened to (true) fact.? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macraes_Mine .... Oh & I shoulda signed in as: QUIX4U (but couldn't be bothered signing in) Cheers 125.237.42.197 (talk) 01:34, 8 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What about the Carajás Mine? It is the biggest mine in the world and the article says it's open pit, shouldnt it be added? 189.61.4.232 (talk) 14:21, 27 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

List of open-pit mines perhaps, or List of large open-pit mines. Relevant columns could include the mineral, location, year it opened, year closed (where applicable), peak extraction rate, volume etc. There's plenty of mines to list [10]. Stevage 07:32, 4 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

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This edit request by an editor with a conflict of interest has now been answered.

Hello. My name is Robert and I'm here as an official representative of Peabody Energy. I have been hired by Peabody to upload images owned by the company to Wikimedia Commons, to serve as a resource, and to seek the addition of images to articles related to coal mining.

Earlier this year (and again more recently), I uploaded a number of images for which the copyright permission was granted by Peabody and recorded by OTRS. Now that those images are available for use, I'm looking to see where they might be helpful additions to illustrate articles on Wikipedia.

Since one of the images is a before and after of restored land at an open-pit mine, I thought that it might be a good addition for this page:

• File:Coal_Mine_Land_Reclamation.png

I think this image would work well as a clear example to include in the "Rehabilitation" section of this article. It shows very clearly how land at an open pit mine changes from the active mining to restored state. For the caption, I would suggest "Before and after photographs of the Seneca Yoast Mine showing the mine in its operational state and afterwards the restored site."

Can anyone here add this image into the article for me? Thank you for reviewing this request. Robert PEnergy (talk) 21:17, 2 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the suggestion and providing the image. However, I'm not sure it's the best choice. The image has unnecessary text (this kind of information is typically preferably given in the caption, as it is in your suggested caption), but more importantly, the text is confusing--the left says "Before mining," but is clearly during the mine's operation. It would make more sense if the sides were "before restoration" and "after restoration," respectively. Do you have access to the original, unedited image? If so, I recommend uploading that as an updated version of the image, and then it would be a fine addition to the article. Knight of Truth (talk) 21:40, 2 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Knight of Truth, thank you for your reply and I understand your thoughts on the image. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the original image without the text over the top. Perhaps instead of this image, one of the following two images might suit better? Both show restored land at open-pit mines:

• File:Land_Reclamation_Cabello_Coal_Mine.png

Suggested caption: "Coal silos and reclaimed land at the Caballo coal mine."

• File:New_Antelope_Rochelle_Coal_Mine.png

Suggested caption: "Opencut coal mine loadout station and reclaimed land at the North Antelope Rochelle coal mine."

What do you think? Robert PEnergy (talk) 17:21, 5 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

YThe second image has been implemented (along with some other improvements). Thanks for making the edit request! Knight of Truth (talk) 04:54, 19 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I noticed that the article touches upon some kinds of contamination due to the use of open-pit mines including the pollution of groundwater and the acid-mine drainage. However, there is information lacking in this article about several other negative environmental impacts including: the mechanistic change in landscape, air pollution attributed to the release of dust, and the effect of these mines on the abundance and diversity of both fauna and flora. I can site this review article as proof that the environmental impacts are significant enough for discussion in this topic.

In order to more clearly and thoroughly represent this topic I suggest adding a section for the environmental impacts of open pit mines. Falcanta (talk) 04:22, 8 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I think it is important to discuss this issue in a new subtitle of pollutants. I think the environmental issues and the effect on the miners and surrounding areas should only be briefly touched on maintain neutrality of the article. Jennacarleton (talk) 16:45, 4 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. More than half the lead was taken up by the topic of safety and environmental risks. I have moved most of that down into the relevant section, but still leaving a small mention in the lead itself. CeruleanBancroft (talk) 23:53, 12 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There is a broken link - it leads to a blog page that does not exist anymore (see Reference 8). I think the link was trying to prove that rehabilitated landfills could prove to be safe residential and commercial zones. However, the source was an “environmental and design altelier” and not a regulatory, environmental, or urban planning organization that could scientifically prove that these sites could be safe for human use. There is research to prove that scientifically designed sanitary landfills can be rehabilitated with some success through the use of phytoremediation, although I am having trouble finding cases where this has been implemented in open-pit mines. Maybe we can delete it and add verfiable source? Falcanta (talk) 04:25, 8 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I also found another broken link: reference 7. Falcanta (talk) 04:31, 8 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Do you all think that an economic importance section should be added to this page? Open-pit mines may have many several negative environmental impacts but are they also important in supplying economies with precious metals and ores. Maybe adding the amounts of products produced and the economic worth of these mines would be important to explaining why they exist. Falcanta (talk) 04:28, 8 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that this is a section that should be added, however, I think it should simply be added to description as economic value can vary depending on the ore being mined, the area being mined, and the size of the mine. Jennacarleton (talk) 16:37, 4 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

In the description, I think it is important to explain how these types of mines are created to prove they are different from other forms of mines. Furthermore, I think it is beneficial to mention the reasoning the position of the mine. E.g., the grade and economic value of the discovered ore. Jennacarleton (talk) 16:36, 4 April 2019 (UTC)[reply]

need to add pictures from countries not American. Wikipedia has a heavily pro-American bias. We live in diverse mult-polar world. 2600:100F:B1A3:EF31:0:3:EDA4:E01 (talk) 05:00, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Can you provide links to freely licensed or public domain photos of open pit mines in other countries? Have you taken any such photos yourself? Cullen328 (talk) 05:03, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The article currently includes photos of mines in Germany, Finland, Poland and Australia, so your complaint seems invalid. Cullen328 (talk) 05:06, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If you're looking for a company that does 3D open pit mining animations, CAD TEAM does really great ones. You can provide them with the files, Tiffs and elevation maps and they'll put them together, showing the life cycle of a mine over the span of however many years. Contact them today. CAD TEAM did a great job as a vendor to our company. Zeefakir (talk) 23:41, 28 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]