open-pit

adjective

US
: involving the removal of the surface of a large area of land to get at a mineral or other material that is near to the surface
an open-pit mine

Examples of open-pit in a Sentence

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Copper is largely extracted from open-pit mines, which, like the gold mine in the social media post, can be enormous. Kate S. Petersen, USA TODAY, 1 Dec. 2024 An open-pit vermiculite mine, which operated from 1963 to 1990, coated the area — and residents’ lungs — with needle-like asbestos fibers. Peter Elkind, ProPublica, 13 Nov. 2024 Current methods rely on open-pit mining or the months-long process of evaporating water in gigantic ponds. Daniel Moore, Axios, 31 Oct. 2024 Australia’s primary legacy on Bougainville is Panguna, a colossal, open-pit copper and gold mine that, while dormant, is still one of the largest on earth, and whose controversial operation kindled the Bougainvillean uprising. Sean Williams, Harper's Magazine, 23 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for open-pit 

Dictionary Entries Near open-pit

Cite this Entry

“Open-pit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/open-pit. Accessed 22 Dec. 2024.

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