An adit is a nearly-horizontal passage or tunnel that provides access to and from underground workings in a tunnel. An adit is an entrance to an underground mine by which the mine can be entered, drained of water, ventilated, and minerals extracted at the lowest convenient level. Adits are also used to explore for mineral veins.
What is the difference between Adit and tunnel?
is that adit is a horizontal or nearly horizontal passage from the surface into a mine as contrasted to a shaft which is a vertical entry passage an adit may be used for ventilation, haulage, drainage, or other purposes while tunnel is an underground or underwater passage. to make a tunnel through or under something, to burrow.
What is the purpose of an adit?
An adit (from Latin aditus, entrance) is an entrance to an underground mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal, by which the mine can be entered, drained of water, ventilated, and minerals extracted at the lowest convenient level. Adits are also used to explore for mineral veins.
Why build a horizontal adit to an existing tunnel?
Dewatering is another reason to build a horizontal adit to an existing tunnel. But the extra passage may also be part of the normal design of the operation. The word adit comes from a Latin word signifying approach or entrance.
What is a horizontal adit?
Short horizontal tunnels driven through the ground to serve that purpose are called adits. An adit may also serve as another way into the tunnel. This may be required on an emergency basis to retrieve equipment or to assist or rescue tunnel workers. Dewatering is another reason to build a horizontal adit to an existing tunnel.
What is difference between adit and tunnel?
First, some mining terminology: A Tunnel is an underground passageway. An Adit is a horizontal tunnel, and a Shaft is a vertical entry passage used for access or to haul goods into our out of a mine.
What does adit mean in mining?
adit, a horizontal or near-horizontal passage driven from the Earth's surface into the side of a ridge or mountain for the purpose of working, ventilating, or removing water from a mine.
What is a tunnel in mining?
i. A horizontal or inclined stone drivage for development or to connect mine workings, seams, or shafts. It may be open to the surface at one end and used for drainage, ventilation, or haulage or as a personnel egress (walking or riding) from the mine workings.
What is open adit mining?
Introduction to Adit Mining Adit mining is a method of extract minerals from earth horizontally. An adit is a type of entrance to an underground mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal.
What is a mine elevator called?
Cage - In a mine shaft, the device, similar to an elevator car, that is used for hoisting personnel and materials.
What are the two parts of lift that go down a mine called?
The two parts of lift that go down a mine are called Hoist cable and Sheave wheel. The main significance of hoist cables in the lifts: With the help of a weight-carrying pulley system, it lifts heavy-weight in the lift or elevator. A sheave wheel is also called a pulley wheel.
What are 4 types of mining?
Depending on the material extracted, there are different types of mining processes that can be used to retrieve desired materials. While there are numerous types of mining processes, the most common is surface mining....Surface MiningStrip mining.Mountaintop removal.Open-pit mining.
How deep can tunnels go?
The deepest tunnel-like structure created so far is the TauTona Mine in South Africa. The bottom of it is 2.4 miles below the surface. Temperatures there can reach 131°F, which has proven deadly many times in the past. The temperature can be lowered to more pleasant levels, but conditions are still very dangerous.
What are the different types of tunnels?
There are three basic types of tunnel construction in common use:Cut-and-cover tunnel, constructed in a shallow trench and then covered over.Bored tunnel, constructed in situ, without removing the ground above. ... Immersed tube tunnel, sunk into a body of water and laid on or buried just under its bed.
What are the disadvantages of underground mining?
Although there are opponents and proponents of underground mining, the disadvantages include destruction of land, surface subsidence, abandoned shafts, extensive surface spoil heaps, mine explosions, collapses and flooding.
How wide are mine tunnels?
Safety Research Coal Mine main entry. The width of the western high-seam coal mine's main entry varied from 5.6 m (18 ft) to 5.9 m (19 ft) and the height ranged from 2.7 m (9 ft) to 3.4 m (11 ft). The crosscut's width varied from 5.2 m (17 ft) to 5.3 m (17 ft) with the height varying from 2.4 m (8 ft) to 2.7 m (9 ft).
What is a passage in a coal mine called?
Airway – Any passage in a mine along which an air current moves. Some passages are driven solely for air. Other passages, such as a main level, are all purpose, to move air, men, coal, and materials. Anthracite.
What is ADIT qualification?
The ADIT qualification is a highly respected international tax learning programme, with students in over 120 countries worldwide. Designed by world-leading experts, it is a challenging and rigorous qualification that will reward you and your career.
How are mine shafts named?
When the top of the excavation is the ground surface, it is referred to as a shaft; when the top of the excavation is underground, it is called a winze or a sub-shaft. Small shafts may be excavated upwards from within an existing mine as long as there is access at the bottom, in which case they are called raises.
What is an adit?
An adit is a horizontal or near-horizontal passageway to a larger underground excavation for the purposes of ventilation, water removal, or auxiliary entrance. The short tunnels are used in both mining and tunneling to access the main shaft at strategic points.
Where does the word "adit" come from?
The word adit comes from a Latin word signifying approach or entrance. The requirement for adits will vary with any tunneling operation.
What is horizontal drilling?
Horizontal directional drilling (HDD), also known as directional boring, is a minimal impact trenchless construction technique used to install underground pipelines, conduits, cables or any other utility along a predefined path.
What is an adit?
An adit (from Latin aditus, entrance) is an entrance to an underground mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal, by which the mine can be entered, drained of water, ventilated, and minerals extracted at the lowest convenient level. Adits are also used to explore for mineral veins.
What is the Adit used for?
Part of a former silver mine, the adit was used for removing water from the mine. It still carries water from old galleries to the nearest river. A part of it is open for tourists, who go 20 metres (66 ft) down the steps in one shaft, have a ride in a boat, and go up the stairs in another shaft.
Why are adits useful?
Adits are useful for deeper mines, as water only needs to be raised to the drainage adit rather than to the surface. Because of the great reduction in ongoing costs that a drainage adit can provide, they have sometimes been driven for great distances for this purpose.
How long is the Milwr Tunnel?
Milwr tunnel, a 10-mile long (16 km) drainage adit in North Wales. Started in 1897, it still discharges an average of 87 million litres (23 million US gallons) of water per day from the disused Halkyn District United Mines.
What are the advantages of adit mining?
Access to a mine by adit has many advantages over the vertical access shafts used in shaft mining. Less energy is required to transport miners and heavy equipment into and out of the mine. It is also much easier to bring ore or coal out of the mine.
Why are adits important?
In combination with shafts, adits form an important element in the ventilation of a mine: in simple terms, cool air will enter through an adit, be warmed by the higher temperature underground and will naturally exhaust from vertical shafts, some of which are sunk specifically for this purpose .
What is the name of the vertical shafts that connect the levels?
They can be connected by short vertical shafts known as " winzes ". A level that reaches the surface, on a hillside or in a valley, for instance, is called an "adit level". In the Worsley Navigable Levels in Greater Manchester, England, the levels were intentionally flooded and coal was transported on canal boats.
How long is an adit?
Consequently, adits as long as one to three kilometres (one or two miles) are often economically feasible. The size and cross sectionof an adit depend upon its use, with a horseshoe shape especially common. The walls may be of the natural rough rock or may be lined with concrete, wood, or steel.
How are cut and cover tunnels built?
So-called cut-and-cover tunnels (more correctly called conduits) are built by excavating from the surface, constructing the structure, and then covering with backfill. Tunnels underwater are now commonly built by the use of an immersed tube: long, prefabricated tube sections are floated to the site,….
Examples of adit in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web The second phase will involve closing the mine’s adits and shafts. — USA TODAY, 27 June 2019
History and Etymology for adit
borrowed from Latin aditus "approach, entrance," from adi-, stem of adīre "to go to, approach" (from ad- ad- + īre "to go") + -tus, suffix of action nouns — more at issue entry 1
