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

The couple lives in the village of Bulga, 14 miles from Singleton on the other side of the Mount Thorley Warkworth open-cut mine.

From Washington Post • Nov. 11, 2021

A road leads to an open-cut mine in the area known as the Pilbara region located in the north-west of Western Australia, September 5, 2016.

From Reuters • Aug. 13, 2021

The term solastalgia was coined by the philosopher Glenn Albrecht in 2005 to address feelings of shock in Australia after large open-cut coalmining in New South Wales had transformed the Upper Hunter Valley.

From The Guardian • Oct. 15, 2020

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

From the unwatered drive or tunnel downwards, the method of working as just described may be characterised as an underground application of the "open-cut system".

From Twentieth Century Inventions A Forecast by Sutherland, George