Question

which mining process uses heavy equipment to dig holes to remove ores, as well as sand, gravel, and stone? dredging heap leaching open-pit mining strip mining

Answer 1

The mining process using heavy equipment for digging holes to extract ores and other materials is known as open-pit mining.

Step-by-step explanation:

The mining process that uses heavy equipment to dig holes in order to remove ores, as well as sand, gravel, and stone, is known as open-pit mining. This method involves digging a large hole or 'pit' in the ground to extract the minerals from near the surface.

Unlike techniques such as dredging and heap leaching that remove sediments from water or use chemical processes to extract minerals from heaps of ore respectively, open-pit mining is employed when the mineral or rock is close to the surface and has a large horizontal extension. Similarly, strip mining is used to extract resources near the surface but typically involves the removal of soil and rock to reach shallow deposits, which differs from open-pit mining in its method and scale of operation.