in gold mining, when you say narrow vein, what does it mean?

Question

is there any reference you can recommend where i can look up terminologies in mining in general? thanks

Answer 1

It means just what it sounds like, a narrow vein of gold. If the ore is present in narrow veins it is often a challenge to mine it economically, because the underground openings need to be big enough to get the equipment into, but the vein is so small that a lot of 'waste rock' (non-gold bearing rock) also needs to mined in order to get the ore rock with the gold vein in it.

There is a narrow vein mining research project that may provide more information:
http://mmsd1.mms.nrcan.gc.ca/canmet/database-e.asp

For general terminologies of mining terms this is a great site:
http://www.infomine.com/dictionary/welcome.asp