open-pit

[oh-puhn-pit]

adjective

Mining.

1. noting or pertaining to a type of surface mining in which massive, usually metallic mineral deposits are removed by cutting benches in the walls of a broad, deep funnel-shaped excavation.

Word History and Origins

Origin of open-pit¹

First recorded in 1910–15

Example Sentences

The mine in which the three are trapped is an open-pit copper and gold mine, which was constructed in 2014.

From BBC

Protections like these could protect ecosystems in the examined cases of the tribunal, including in Brazil where a firm called Belo Sun has proposed the development of the country’s largest open-pit gold mine, and in regions affected by copper, silver, and other metals mining throughout Ecuador.

From Salon

The victims had climbed into open-pit areas left by industrial miners to look for scraps of gold when the earth around them caved in, a gold miner's union leader told Reuters.

From BBC

Trump’s support can be expected for renewed clear-cutting in the 17-million-acre Tongass forest, the same old-growth carbon sink Dunleavy hoped to profit from; building a 211-mile industrial-use-only road through the pristine Brooks Range to open the door to copper mining; and permitting an open-pit gold mine near the headwaters of the salmon-rich Kuskokwim River.

From Los Angeles Times

Giant trucks the size of townhouses, capable of hauling 300 tonnes, criss-cross red-earth roads in various sections of this open-pit mine complex.

From BBC