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in industry: see miningmining,
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In 1997 an international treaty called for signatory nations to end the use, development, acquisition, and stockpiling of land mines and to destroy their current stocks of such mines; the treaty went into effect in 1999. More than 160 nations are now parties to the treaty. The United States refused to sign the treaty, arguing that doing so would hinder the country's ability to protect its troops; Russia and China also did not signed. The International Campaign to Ban LandminesInternational Campaign to Ban Landmines
(ICBL), global network of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working toward the eradication of antipersonnel land mines. Established in 1992 by the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, Handicap International, Human Rights Watch,
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According to UN figures, at the end of the 20th cent. there were more than 100 million mines laid across the world, and about the same amount in national stockpiles. Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Iraq, and Laos were believed to be the nations worst affected by land mines; land mines are also a significant problem in Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Chad, Croatia, Thailand, and Turkey. In Afghanistan and Cambodia it was estimated that a third of the land was unusable due to buried mines. As many as 26,000 injuries and death resulted worldwide each year from land mines; roughly three quarters of those affected were and are civilians. Under the treaty roughly half of the world's stockpiled land mines have been destroyed, though national compliance with the treaty was typically slower than required, and more than 25 nations once affected by land mines were considered to have been cleared. In 2015, some 6,500 people were killed or injured by land mines. The U.S. government ended the use of persistent land mines in 2011, and subsequently (2014) announced it would abide by the treaty everywhere except Korea. Despite its not having signed the treaty, the United States has been the largest provider of financial aid for mine clearance.





(1) Ammunition for firing from mortars and smoothbore recoilless guns. Various types of such shells include fragmentation, high-explosive fragmentation, and high-explosive shells, which are designed to destroy enemy manpower and weapons or defensive structures; incendiary, smoke, illuminating, and leaflet shells, which are used to perform auxiliary combat missions; and training shells. The unit of fire for smooth-bore recoilless guns includes shaped-charge (antitank) shells and high-explosive fragmentation shells. The loaded shell consists of a body (steel or refined cast iron) with a charge of explosives, primary and supplementary propellant powder charges, a fuse, and a stabilizer. On the body of the shell there is a cylindrical part, and there are ribs on the vanes of the stabilizer to ensure centering and correct movement of the shell along the barrel. The stabilizer (which is steel or aluminum) gives the shell stability in flight.

(2) A combat means for setting up explosive obstacles that are used to inflict losses on the enemy, inhibit his advance, and make the waging of combat more difficult. There are naval mines and land mines.

(3) An obsolete term in fortifications for “tunnel.”



an enterprise designed mainly for the underground mining of ores, rocks bearing chemical elements, and construction materials. A mine may be composed of several adjacent shafts with independent openings and separate ventilation systems for the underground excavations. There may be common surface equipment and auxiliary plants, such as crushing and sorting plants, concentration plants, electromechanical and repair shops, warehouses, and maintenance installations. Enterprises engaged in the open-pit mining of ore are sometimes called mines, as in the case of the Magnitogorsk Mine. The type of mining operations carried out depends on the excavation system adopted.

Mines with high output capability provide the best return for capital investment. In the USSR, for example, more than half the underground mining of iron ore is concentrated at nine of the country’s 37 mines, with annual output reaching more than 3 million tons. The annual production capacity of the S. M. Kirov Apatite Mine in the Khibiny Mountains is 7 million tons. The annual production of the F. E. Dzerzhinskii Mine in the Krivoi Rog Iron Ore Basin is 12.1 million tons; this figure includes the 7 million tons mined annually in the Gigant Shaft. As of 1973, the First Soligorsk Potassium Mine produced 11 million tons annually. The normal depreciation period for mines in the USSR when veins are being worked varies from eight to ten years but may reach 25–40 years or more for large deposits.

Outside the Soviet Union and the socialist countries, there were in 1970 more than 180 mines with annual production of greater than 1 million tons; of these, 34 mines produced more than 3 million tons annually. The largest mine is the Kiruna Iron Mine in Sweden, which in 1973 produced 27 million tons.

In the USSR, mining excavations are up to 1 km deep at the V. I. Lenin Mine in the Krivoi Rog Iron Ore Basin (iron ores) and at the Oktiabr’skii Mine in Noril’sk (complex ores). Gold is mined at depths of greater than 3 km in India and the Republic of South Africa.




(Russian, fugas), an explosive charge housed in a waterproof casing and placed just below the surface of the ground or water. Detonated with a clockwork fuze—either electrically or by a flame—or with a mechanical pressure-firing device, mines explode without warning, inflicting losses on the enemy and hindering his advance. Such weapons are used in military obstacles.

What does it mean when you dream about a mine?

Going into a mine can represent going to the depths of an issue or condition in the dreamer’s life. It can also signify the inner terrain of the subconscious from which something valuable is being mined.


(mining engineering)
An opening or excavation in the earth for extracting minerals.
An encased explosive or chemical charge designed to be positioned so that it detonates when the target touches or moves near it or when it is fired by remote control; general types are land mines and underwater mines.


Zoology a groove or tunnel made by certain insects, esp in a leaf
References in periodicals archive ?
Some of these would have improved ventilation in underground mines, others would have deepened investigations of mining accidents, and still others would have required inflammable conveyor belts and more extensive training for miners.
In what Still calls a "significant event," the almost century old underground Dome mine was reopened earlier this year after being placed on care and maintenance in 2004.
A smaller mine might only buy $5 million, and our larger clients may buy $200 million to $300 million.
These mines often Fail to self-destruct, and "are usually used in great numbers, and spread over huge areas, impossible to map or mark; while active, they are indiscriminate, just like dumb mines.
Readers interested in the hydrogeology of coal mines, in particular, may find many papers highly informative.
We remain committed to the belief that private citizens and organizations have a role in reinforcing the official mine action efforts of the US government and the governments of other donor nations.
This action would have resulted in the closest mineral in the mine being extracted at an abnormally high profit level, while the mineral further back in the mine would be extracted at a loss.
Both studies were conducted to bolster the city's arguments against the 460-acre mine proposed south of the Antelope Valley Freeway between Agua Dulce and Soledad Canyon roads.
The various designs of antipersonnel mines form a gruesome gallery of weapons.
Labor in the mines provided, however, an uneasy basis for self-assertion and dignity.