open-cut

American  

[oh-puhn-kuht] / ˈoʊ pənˌkʌt /

adjective

Mining.

1. noting or pertaining to a type of surface mining in which coal and other flat-lying mineral deposits are removed by the excavation of long, narrow trenches.

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open cut British  

noun

1. civil engineering an excavation made in the open rather than in a tunnel See cut-and-cover

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Etymology

Origin of open-cut

First recorded in 1880–85

Example Sentences

Minister Plibersek's department agreed, finding sediment and run off from the open-cut mine was likely to damage the Reef and local water resources.

From BBC • Feb. 8, 2023

But in the 1970s, new technology, including bigger dump trucks, made open-cut mining more competitive.

From Washington Post • Nov. 11, 2021

A road leads to an open-cut mine in the area known as the Pilbara region located in the north-west of Western Australia, September 5, 2016.

From Reuters • Aug. 13, 2021

The term solastalgia was coined by the philosopher Glenn Albrecht in 2005 to address feelings of shock in Australia after large open-cut coalmining in New South Wales had transformed the Upper Hunter Valley.

From The Guardian • Oct. 15, 2020

I rushed into the British Legation through the canal open-cut, and here they were, piles and piles of Indian troops, standing and lying about and waving and talking.

From Indiscreet Letters From Peking Being the Notes of an Eye-Witness, Which Set Forth in Some Detail, from Day to Day, the Real Story of the Siege and Sack of a Distressed Capital in 1900—The Year of Great Tribulation by Putnam Weale, B. L. (Bertram Lenox)