A glossary of mining and metallurgical terms

8 A GLOSSARY OF MINING AND METALLURGICAL TERMS.
Base bullion. See Bullion.
Base metals. The metals not classed as noble or precious. See
Noble metals.
Basic. In furnace practice, a slag in which the earthy bases are
in excess of the amount required to form a neutral slag with the
silica present.
Basic lining. A lining for furnaces, converters, etc., formed of
non-silicious material, usually limestone, dolomite, lime, magnesia,
or iron oxide.
Basic-lining process. An improvement of the JBessemer process,
in which, by the use of a basic lining in the converter and by the
addition of basic materials during the bloiv, it is possible to eliminate
phosphorus from the pig iron, and keep it out of the steel.
Basin. 1. A natural depression of strata containing a coal bed
or other stratified deposit. 2. The deposit itself.
Bass or bait. See Bind.
Basset, Derb. An outcrop ; the edge of a stratum.
Batch, Corn. The quantity of ore sent to the surface by a pare
of men.
Batea, Sp. A large wooden bowl in which gold-bearing earth
or crushed ore is washed in the same way as in a pan.
tank.
Bath. A mass of molten material in a furnace, or of solution in a
Bait. See Bind.
Battery. 1. A set of stomps in a stamp-mill, comprising the num-
ber which fall in one mortar, usually five. 2. A bulkhead of tim-
ber. 3. The plank closing the bottom of a coal-chute.
Battery-anialgamation. Amalgamation by means of mercury
placed in the mortar.
Battery-assay. See Pulp-assay.
Bauxite. See Aluminium-ores.
Beans, Newc. Small coals.
Bean-shot. Copper granulated by pouring into hot water.
Bear. 1. See Salamander. 2. See Loup.
Bearing. See Strike.
JBed. A seam or deposit of mineral, later in origin than the rock
below, and older than the rock above; that is to say, a regular mem-
ber of the series of formations, and not an intrusion.
Bedded vein. I^roperly 6a/-mn [Lagergaug oi the Germans);
a lode occupying the position of a bed, that is, parallel with the
stratification of the inclosing rocks.