Open-pit mining (as opposed to underground mining) has several advantages:- 1) Low cost of recovery - large trucks can enter the mine, get filled up with rock from a large excavator and drive away to the processing plant. 2) No need to leave stability pillars, necessary to hold up underground mine workings but which may contain valuable ore that is effectively lost to the mining company. 3) Ease of beneficiation - surface mines are usually composed of materials (oxides in the case of metalliferous mines) that are easier to handle and easier to treat in order to recover their marketable product as a result of being so close to surface. 4) Safer environment - so much less problem of rock falls, hanging wall collapse resulting in a lower injury rate than in underground mine.
