Deads

The barren waste rock produced alongside ore or coal as a working advanced — stone, shale or spoil with no mineral value, as distinct from the material actually being mined.

Historical usage

Every working, whatever it was mining, generated deads alongside its saleable product, and dealing with the resulting waste was a constant, everyday part of running a mine — a coal seam brought up shale and dirt with it, a metal lode brought up barren country rock alongside the ore-bearing vein.

How it worked

Rather than always hauling deads all the way to the surface, miners often packed it back into worked-out sections of the mine itself — a practice also called stowing or 'gobbing up' — using it to fill void space and help support the roof of exhausted workings. What deads did reach the surface was tipped nearby, building up the spoil heaps and waste tips that still mark old mine sites today.

Why it was used

Packing deads back underground rather than hauling it all to the surface saved on winding costs and put the waste rock to some practical use, providing rough support for the roof over worked-out ground rather than leaving voids to collapse uncontrolled.

Risks & limitations

Deads stacked underground, often on ageing timber platforms in long-abandoned workings, can become dangerously unstable over time — a hazard for anyone who later enters old workings — while deads tipped at surface left the waste heaps and tips that remain the most visible legacy of many closed mines.

Regional variation

Terminology for the same basic waste material varies by coalfield and period — 'dirt', 'muck', 'redd', 'rubbish' and 'steriles' were all used for the general run of waste rock, while a surface spoil heap itself went by 'tip', 'pit heap' or, in Scotland, 'bing'.

Sources

1. (secondary) Glossary of mining terms (D) — North Staffordshire Mining Group
2. (secondary) Mine Waste Rock — ScienceDirect

Record created: 20 August 2026 · Last researched: 20 August 2026