drift mine
Americannoun
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a mine the opening of which is dug into an outcrop of coal or ore.
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an underground placer mine.
Etymology
Origin of drift mine
An Americanism dating back to 1885–90
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The drift mine, near Appleby-in-Westmorland, sits under rolling farmland and supplies the raw materials to make plasterboard for the building industry, something it has been doing for almost 50 years.
From BBC • Feb. 16, 2025
Charles Breslin, 62, David Powell, 50, Phillip Hill, 44, and Garry Jenkins, 39, died when water flooded the Gleision drift mine in Neath Port Talbot on 15 September 2011.
From BBC • Oct. 20, 2022
Charles Breslin, 62, David Powell, 50, Philip Hill, 44, and Garry Jenkins, 39, drowned in 2011 when 650,000 gallons of water flooded the drift mine following a controlled explosion.
From BBC • Nov. 26, 2014
The colliery is a drift mine, a relatively low-cost form of underground mining, when tunnels -- drifts -- are dug horizontally into rock, rather than directly downwards.
From Reuters • Sep. 16, 2011
The plan is to create a drift mine – cheaper than deep mining and less destructive to the environment than open-cast.
From Newsweek
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
