There are also two main types of ore deposits that are mined both by open pit and underground methods:

Placer deposits. Placer deposits are found in rivers and streams, as well as in beach sands.
Lode deposits. Rock deposits are contained in rock bodies through layers, veins, or mineral grains.

Surface mining

Mining activities are carried out on the surface of the earth. Overburden will be removed to expose the ore body below.

Surface mining methods include:

• Strip mining. Strip mining uses dragline excavators to remove overburden from the ground surface and expose the ore body. Strip mining is also used to prepare land for open pit mining, quarrying, and mining.
• Open-pit mining is the development of mineral resources. Open-pit mining is a technique that involves drilling into the earth’s surface to place explosives. The explosions expose the underlying rock and create large pits from which miners can extract ore. This surface mining technique can be used to extract silver.
• Open pit mining. Quarrying, another form of surface mining, is used to extract slabs and byproducts of marble, granite, and other hard stones.
• Mountaintop removal mining. Mountaintop removal mining is used primarily in the Appalachian Mountains for coal mining. The mountaintop will be cleared into the adjacent valleys, and the top 300 meters will be blasted to open up the coal seams in the quarry.
• Highwall mining. High-wall mining is used to extract the remaining coal from the seam using a continuous shaft. It is used in combination with strip mining and open pit mining and is used to target coal seams from the sides when there is a thick overburden layer on top of the seam.
• Placer mining. A combination of water and tanks is used to extract gold and other precious metals that are found in sand and gravel. These precious metals have a higher density than water and sink faster than surrounding materials.
• In-situ leaching (ISL) mining. In-situ mining is a somewhat unconventional mining method that uses neither surface nor underground mining methods. Instead, valuable materials are dissolved in situ with water, carbonate solutions or acid without removing the surrounding rock.

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Hard rock versus soft rock mining requires different underground mining methods and this should be considered when choosing the right mining method.

Three different types of access tunnels are used to extract ore:

• Drift mining: uses horizontal access tunnels.
• Slope mining: uses access shafts with a diagonal inclination.
• Shaft mining: uses vertical access shafts.

Below are the main types of underground mining methods:

• Room and pillar mining. Room and pillar mining consists of clearing a room of ore, but leaving the pillars in place to support the weight of the ceiling until the ore is cleared from the face.
• Retreat mining. Retreat mining follows chamber and pillar mining and is the process of removing the pillars from the room, thus extracting the remaining ore. This process is done strategically and can be extremely dangerous as the mine collapses in on itself during the removal process.
• Shrinkage mining. Shrinkage mining, also known as sub-floor mining, is used to extract minerals from steep ore bodies. Pillars are excavated and then backfilled at different sub-levels. The host rock between the backfilled holes is then excavated using the same process.
• Sub-level open stoping. Sub-level open pit mining, also known as blast hole mining or longwall mining, is used when a solid rock body is present and no structural support is required to extract the ore. Drill holes are drilled and the host rock is blasted in sections to an open pit. This method is used to extract lead and iron.
• Cut-and-fill mining. The cut-and-fill mining is carried out by working horizontal strips from the bottom of the ore body to the top. Before moving to the next level, drifts are mined and backfilled. This method is used for soft host rocks.
• Sublevel caving. Sublevel caving is used to mine the footwall of an inclined ore body. This method mines from the top down and uses blasting to extract the ore, which leads to the destruction of the bedrock.
• Block caving. Block caving undermines massive ore bodies and creates voids under the loosened rock. The ore falls apart in the voids and is transported to the crusher through the ore passages. During mining, the surface of the mine deflects as the ore is removed. This method is used for massive but weak ore bodies and has a more complex preparation process than other mining methods.

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Although some authors have attempted to make a mining regionalization of the world, there is no generally accepted scheme for such a regionalization. However, with some conventionality, nine mining regions can be distinguished:

1) USA, Canada and Mexico;
2) Latin America
3) Western Europe
4) CIS countries;
5) China;
6) North Africa and Southwest Asia;
7) Sub-Saharan Africa;
8) SOUTH AFRICA;
9) Australia.

In all these regions, more than 8,000 deposits of mining and mining-chemical raw materials (without fuel) are currently being developed, including almost 1,200 large ones (including 330 in North America, 215 in Africa, 200 in Latin America, 150 in Western Europe, and 120 in Australia). The first and fourth regions have the largest reserves of mineral fuels and raw materials. As for the development over the next 10-15 years, the most optimistic outlook is for the first, second, sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth regions.

There are eight major mining countries in the world that primarily determine the main production capacities in this important sector of the global economy. These are China, Australia, the United States, Canada, Brazil, South Africa, and India. For these countries, the mining industry has long been one of the areas of international specialization, and it is multisectoral in nature. The second group of countries in terms of mining industry development includes Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Poland, Indonesia, Venezuela, Peru, and Mexico. It can be added that there are many more countries, especially developing ones, that do not have a diversified mining industry, but stand out on the world market by the level of development of one of its subsectors. These are, for example, Chile for copper production, Guinea and Jamaica for bauxite mining, Morocco for phosphate ores, etc.

In general, the extraction of ore raw materials is more widespread than that of nonore raw materials, but there are considerable differences between its individual subsectors. For example, copper ores are currently mined in 50 countries, iron ores in 43, bauxite in 30, tin and tungsten ores in 25, nickel ores in 22, cobalt ores in 15, and molybdenum ores in 12. And this is not to mention the huge differences between them in “weight categories”.

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The largest mining countries in the world are the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and China. Mining is an internationally specialized industry in this group of countries, as well as in many developing countries, including India, Indonesia, Congo, Zambia, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, and Zambia. As in the past, developing countries are now suppliers of minerals to industrialized countries. In many developing countries, raw materials are extracted in volumes that are several times higher than their domestic needs. Consequently, a significant amount of extracted raw materials is exported.

Despite the fact that the mining industry is one of the leading industries in developed countries, they meet a third of their needs for ore products through imports from economically backward countries.

In addition to the oil crisis in the West in October 1973, the industrialized countries of the world also experienced a raw materials crisis. However, it was not as severe. How did the West respond to the commodity crisis?

First, developed countries have taken measures to increase the economy of consumption of ore resources. Secondly, they intensified the development of their own mining industry. For example, Australia and Canada retain no more than 20% of their mineral resources in the country, and sell the rest on the international market.

There are many consumers of minerals in the world. This is due, among other things, to the fact that rare minerals are mined in one (or more) country, while many countries are in demand. Some countries rich in minerals lack certain types of raw materials. Countries that consume extracted minerals differ in the volume of imported minerals, which is explained by the economic potential of the respective country. Japan is the world’s largest importer of minerals, and Western Europe is also a major consumer.

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