Strip mining is used when coal is near the surface or when the overburden is unstable. As mining progresses, the overburden is placed in the previous mine cavity. The advantages of strip mining are to save miners in case of an accident. Instead of shaft mining, where you are in a cave that could collapse at any given moment, you just take off layers of ground to get minerals you need. The disadvantages are pollution. Pollutive cyanide can turn beautiful creeks nasty. Gas that's been trapped for tens of thousands of years is released and it is pollutive.
Contour mining is a type of strip or surface mining that follows the contour of a hill or mountain leaving terraces in the mountainside. An advantage of contour mining is the safety. One disadvantage is soil erosion.
Mountaintop removal is when the top of hills are removed to access horizontal coal seams. The overburden is pushed to areas between high elevations. Following reclamation, the original contour is not restored. An advantage of mountaintop removal mining is that the result of the flat land caused by the mining is good for future development. A disadvantage is numerous houses can be damaged due to mining sites being so close.
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