Stope

The open void left underground once ore has been extracted from a vein or ore body, and the verb ("to stope") for working ground that way.

Historical usage

Stoping is the general term for almost any underground ore extraction beyond the shafts and levels driven simply to reach and open up a mine — it covers everything from small hand-worked gaps to enormous multi-level voids in a major mine's richest ground.

How it worked

Ore is removed from a vein or ore body working upward, downward or along its length, leaving the excavated space as the stope; the earliest stopes were worked by hand tools or fire-setting, later by gunpowder, and from the 19th century onward by other explosives, power tools and machinery. Depending on the ground's stability, a stope was left open, supported artificially with timber, or backfilled with waste rock as work progressed.

Why it was used

Stoping is, in a real sense, simply what mining an ore body actually is — shafts and levels exist to reach and access the ore, but the ore itself is won by stoping it out.

Risks & limitations

A large stope is an unsupported or artificially supported void, and its stability depends entirely on the strength of the surrounding rock and the adequacy of whatever timbering or packing has been used. Timber supports ("stulls") can rot, dry out, crack or simply be overloaded, and a collapse can happen with little warning — exactly what killed eight miners in a timbered stope at Dolcoath's 412-fathom level in 1893, one of the deepest workings in Cornwall at the time.

Regional variation

"Stope"/"stoping" is standard English-language mining terminology worldwide, with the specific method used (open, supported, cut-and-fill, sublevel, and so on) varying by ground conditions and period rather than by region.

Images

Mines associated with this term

Included only where MineArchive's own research gives a reasonable evidential basis — not every mine where this might plausibly apply.

• Dolcoath Mine — Cornwall (notable incident)
  A timbered stope at Dolcoath's 412-fathom level collapsed in 1893, killing eight miners — see this site's own disaster record.

Disasters associated with this term

Included only where MineArchive's own research gives a reasonable evidential basis, with the nature of the relationship stated — not every disaster where this term might plausibly apply.

• Dolcoath Mine stope collapse (contextual relationship)
  The collapse occurred in a large worked-out stope beneath the failed timber support.

Sources

1. (secondary) Definition of stope — Mindat.org Glossary
2. (secondary) Stoping — Wikipedia

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