strip mining

American  

noun

1. mining in an open pit after removal of the overburden.

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strip mining British  

noun

1. another term (esp US) for opencast mining

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strip mining Cultural  

1. Removing a mineral deposit from the Earth after first removing the layer of earth above it.

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Strip mining, the cheapest method of mining, is also the most controversial, because it jeopardizes the environment, and because strip-mined land is either expensive or impossible to reclaim.

Example Sentences

“There’s already overwhelming evidence that strip mining deep-sea nodule fields will destroy ecosystems we barely understand,” he told BBC News.

From BBC • Jul. 22, 2024

Justice Department lawyers filed the suit to collect fines assessed by the Interior Department against 13 companies for strip mining violations that "pose health and safety risks or threaten environmental harm" to neighboring communities.

From Salon • Jun. 2, 2023

Studies suggest that strip mining affects the local mountain hydrology in many places.

From Scientific American • Aug. 3, 2022

“Decades upon decades of strip mining and mountaintop-removal mining leaves the land unable to help absorb some of that runoff during periods of high rainfall,” said Emily Satterwhite, director of Appalachian Studies at Virginia Tech.

From Seattle Times • Jul. 30, 2022

All the other visible hills, including those facing me across the narrow valley, looked to be in good health, except where they had been scarred and gouged by quarrying or strip mining, which was regularly.

From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson