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The original was posted on /r/siloseries by /u/jloong on 2023-09-23 18:56:36.

General question about mining, with spoilers for Dust and Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves:

In mining/digging, you need a place to put the spoil and tailings (all the stuff you take out of the ground and the ore leftovers). You can’t just put it back in the hole, since it takes up more space. (This is a plot point in Seveneves,limiting the size of the underground Digger civilization for a few thousand years because it’s a sealed system and they don’t have anywhere to put the spoil.)

In Dust, Howey specifically addresses (hangs a lampshade on) this in Chapter 7:

“If this thing moves, it’s gonna make a lot of dirt,” Bobby said. “Hauling the tailings from here to the crusher down in the mines is gonna make a mess and take as many men as the digging.” The thought of the crushing room where tailings were ground to powder and vented to the exhaust manifold stirred painful memories.

So in the silos, the miners vaporize the dirt and rocks and send it out an exhaust pipe.

Is this possible in real-life mining and just not done because it’s not economical, or is this impossible?