operations for the extraction of a mineral from a deposit by the underground method. In stoping, a distinction is drawn between combined or gross removal of a mineral and selective removal, in which certain grades of ores, coal, intercalated rock layers, and so on are extracted separately. Mining excavations formed as a result of stoping, and also the space formed after the removal of the mineral, are called stopes; the faces of stoping excavations are called working faces. Rock minerals are stoped with the use of a blast-hole drilling unit for preliminary loosening of the rock mass.
In the USSR, stoping is mechanized: cutter loaders, conveyors, and powered support are used in underground coal mining; loaders, scrapers, and underground excavators are used in underground ore extraction.