1703-01 Open cut mining - all types; placer or hydraulic mining

     Applies to establishments engaged in open cut mining to extract all types of ore including certain minerals such as, but not limited to, phosphate rock, graphite, talc, chalk, mica, asphalt, asbestos and gypsum. The process of open cut mining is also commonly referred to as surface mining, open pit mining or strip mining whereby such ores and minerals are extracted from a large hole or pit on the surface. Operations contemplated by this classification involve excavating and stripping the surface material with use of drag lines, power shovels or earth moving equipment. The products are loaded onto dump trucks or belt conveyors for movement to railroad sidings and loading into ore cars for shipment to processing plants. The equipment generally involves compressors, pneumatic drilling rigs, conveyors, trucks, drag lines, shovels, scrapers and bulldozers. This classification also applies to establishments engaged in hydraulic mining in which material is excavated by moving a stream of high pressure water over the mining face, and placer mining which obtains minerals from placers by use of running water such as on a stream or the shoreline.

     This classification excludes underground mining which is to be reported separately in classification 1702, and quarrying which is to be reported separately in classification 1704.