Strip mining, removal of soil and rock (overburden) above a layer or seam (particularly

coal​), followed by the removal of the exposed mineral.

The common strip-mining techniques are classified as area mining or contour mining on
the basis of the deposit geometry and type. The cycle of operations for both techniques
consists of vegetation clearing, soil removal, drilling and blasting of overburden (if
needed), stripping, removal of the coal or other mineral commodity, and reclamation.

Area mining is appropriate for the extraction of near-surface, relatively flat-lying, and
thin deposits of coal, phosphate, and similar minerals. Area mining usually progresses
in a series of parallel deep trenches referred to as furrows or strips. The length of these
strips may be hundreds of metres. Contour mining progresses in a narrow zone
following the outcrop of a mineral seam in mountainous terrain.

In the past, strip-mined mineral deposits that became exhausted or uneconomical to

mine often were simply abandoned. The result was a barren sawtooth, lunarlike
landscape of spoil piles hostile to natural vegetation and generally unsuitable for any
immediate land use. Such spoil areas are now routinely reclaimed and permanent
vegetation reestablished as an integral part of surface-mining operations. Generally,
reclamation is performed concurrently with mining. ​See​ ​mining​ and ​coal mining​.