Cable bolt - A steel cable, capable of withstanding tens of tonnes, cemented into a drillhole to lend support in blocky ground. Cage - The conveyance used to transport men and equipment between the surface and the mine levels. Calcine - Name given to concentrate that is ready for smelting (i.e. the sulphur has been driven off by oxidation). Call - An option to buy shares at a specified price. The opposite of a “put”. Capitalization - A financial term used to describe the value financial markets put on a company. Determined by multiplying the number of outstanding shares of a company by the current stock price. Capital stock - The total ownership of a limited liability company divided among a specified number of shares. Captive stope - A stope that is accessible only through a manway. Carbon-in-pulp - A method of recovering gold and silver from pregnant cyanide solutions by adsorbing the precious metals to granules of activated carbon, which are typically ground up coconut shells. Cash flow - The net of the inflow and outflow of cash during an accounting period. Does not account for depreciation or bookkeeping write-offs which do not involve an actual cash outlay. Cathode - A rectangular plate of metal, produced by electrolytic refining, which is melted into commercial shapes such as wirebars, billets, ingots, etc. Cesium magnetometer - An geophysical instrument which measures magnetic field strength in terms of vertical gradient and total field. Chalcocite - A sulphide mineral of copper common in the zone of secondary enrichment. Chalcopyrite - A sulphide mineral of copper and iron; the most important ore mineral of copper. Change house - The mine building where workers change into work clothes; also known as the “dry”. Channel sample - A sample composed of pieces of vein or mineral deposit that have been cut out of a small trench or channel, usually about 10 cm wide and 2 cm deep. Charter - A document issued by a governing authority creating a company or other corporation. Chartered bank - A financial institution that accepts deposits and provides loans. Chip sample - A method of sampling a rock exposure whereby a regular series of small chips of rock is broken off along a line across the face. Chromite - The chief ore mineral of chromium. Chute - An opening, usually constructed of timber and equipped with a gate, through which ore is drawn from a stope into mine cars. Cinnabar - A vermilion-colored ore mineral of mercury. Circulating load - Over-sized chunks of ore returned to the head of a closed grinding circuit before going on to the next stage of treatment. Claim - A portion of land held either by a prospector or a mining company. In Canada, the common size is 1,320 ft. (about 400 m) square, or 40 acres (about 16 ha). Clarification - Process of clearing dirty water by removing suspended material. Classifier - A mineral-processing machine which separates minerals according to size and density. Clay - A fine-grained material composed of hydrous aluminum silicates. Cleavage - The tendency of a mineral to split along crystallographic planes. Closed circuit - A loop in the milling process wherein a selected portion of the product of a machine is returned to the head of the machine for finishing to required specification. Coal - A carbonaceous rock mined for use as a fuel. Coalification - The metamorphic processes of forming coal. Collar - The term applied to the timbering or concrete around the mouth of a shaft; also used to describe the top of a mill hole. Column flotation - A milling process, carried out in a tall cylindrical column, whereby valuable minerals are separated from gangue minerals based on their wetability properties. Common stock - Shares in a company which have full voting rights which the holders use to control the company in common with each other. There is no fixed or assured dividend as with preferred shares, which have first claim on the distribution of a company’s earnings or assets. Complex ore - An ore containing a number of minerals of economic value. The term often implies that there are metallurgical difficulties in liberating and separating the valuable metals. Cone crusher - A machine which crushes ore between a gyrating cone or crushing head and an inverted, truncated cone known as a bowl. Concentrate - A fine, powdery product of the milling process containing a high percentage of valuable metal. Concentrator - A milling plant that produces a concentrate of the valuable minerals or metals. Further treatment is required to recover the pure metal. Confirmation - A form delivered by a broker to the client, setting forth the details of stock sales or purchases for the client. Conglomerate - A sedimentary rock consisting of rounded, water-worn pebbles or boulders cemented into a solid mass. Contact - A geological term used to describe the line or plane along which two different rock formations meet. Contact metamorphism - Metamorphism of country rocks adjacent to an intrusion, caused by heat from the intrusion. Contango - A situation in which the price of a metal for forward or future delivery stands at a premium over the cash or spot price of the metal. Continuous miner - A piece of mining equipment which produces a continuous flow of ore from the working face. Controlled blasting - Blasting patterns and sequences designed to achieve a particular objective. Cast blasting, where the muck pile is cast in a particular direction, and deck blasting, where holes are loaded once but blasted in successive blasts days apart, are examples. Converter - In copper smelting, a furnace used to separate copper metal from matte. Core - The long cylindrical piece of rock, about an inch in diameter, brought to surface by diamond drilling. Core barrel - That part of a string of tools in a diamond drill hole in which the core specimen is collected. Cordillera - The continuous chain of mountain ranges on the western margin of North and South America. Country rock - Loosely used to describe the general mass of rock adjacent to an orebody. Also known as the host rock. Crosscut - A horizontal opening driven from a shaft and (or near) right angles to the strike of a vein or other orebody. Crust - The outermost layer of the Earth; includes both continental and oceanic crust. Cum-dividend - Buyer entitled to pending dividend payments. Current assets - Assets of company which can and are likely to he converted into cash within a year. Includes cash, marketable securities, accounts receivable and supplies. Current liabilities - A company’s debts that are payable within a year’s time. Custom smelter - A smelter which processes concentrates from independent mines. Concentrates may be purchased or the smelter may be contracted to do the processing for the independent company. Cut-and-fill - A method of stoping in which ore is removed in slices, or lifts, and then the excavation is filled with rock or other waste material (backfill), before the subsequent slice is extracted. Cut value - Applies to assays that have been reduced to some arbitrary maximum to prevent erratic high values from inflating the average. Cyonidation - A method of extracting exposed gold or silver grains from crushed or ground ore by dissolving it in a weak cyanide solution. May be carried out in tanks inside a mill or in heaps of ore out of doors. Cyanide - A chemical species containing carbon and nitrogen use to dissolve gold and silver from ore.   Prospecting &  Mining Basics