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• open-cut
  open-cut

  adjective

  noting or pertaining to a type of surface mining in which coal and other flat-lying mineral deposits are removed by the excavation of long, narrow trenches.
• open cut
  open cut

  noun

  civil engineering an excavation made in the open rather than in a tunnel See cut-and-cover

open-cut

American  

[oh-puhn-kuht] / ˈoʊ pənˌkʌt /

adjective

Mining.

1. noting or pertaining to a type of surface mining in which coal and other flat-lying mineral deposits are removed by the excavation of long, narrow trenches.

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open cut British  

noun

1. civil engineering an excavation made in the open rather than in a tunnel See cut-and-cover

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Etymology

Origin of open-cut

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

He also helped last year to persuade a judge to recommend against a new open-cut coal project in Queensland state.

From Washington Post • Jan. 31, 2023

Ore mined by an open-cut method was first shipped in 1925, and in the late 1930s mine owner Universal Insulation Co. merged with Zonolite co. and the mine adopted the Zonolite name.

From Washington Times • Dec. 1, 2019

Earlier this year, however, Brazilian company Vale - which owns the underground mine and an open-cut mine at nearby Camberwell - suddenly announced it was sacking 500 workers and mothballing the mines.

From BBC • Jan. 4, 2015

He opened 96% of the Tarkine, including its rainforest, to mineral exploration and gave the go-ahead for the first open-cut mine in the Tarkine's “protected area”.

From The Guardian • Jun. 11, 2013

Thirty-second Street Open-Cut Work.—Before actual open-cut excavation was started, all buildings facing it were underpinned to rock.

From Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910 The New York Tunnel Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The Cross-Town Tunnels. Paper No. 1158 by Brace, James H.