mullock

noun

1. (UK, dialectal, uncountable, usually)Rubbish, waste matter.
2. (Australia, New-Zealand, uncountable, usually)Mining waste or ore processing waste:
3. (Australia, New-Zealand, uncountable, usually)Mining waste or ore processing waste:

   “1875, New Zealand House of Representatives, Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives of New Zealand, Volume 2, page 30, The gold, both in the quartz and mullock, is very fine, and, owing to the soft and ferruginous nature of the stuff, specks can but very rarely be seen during working.”

   “He stopped and took up a handful of mullock. The stones clattered on the coffin; the mud remained in his hand.”

   “On certain days, when hot currents shimmered off Oyster's Reef, we would detect the chalk-dust of the mullock heaps, acrid; or, from the opal mines themselves, the ghastly fug of the tunnels and shafts.”

   “The company is considering a site at Mandurang Valley and two others near its mine in Kangaroo Flat, south-west of Bendigo, for a mullock heap that could reach 21 metres over 25 years.”

4. (uncountable, usually)Nonsense, rubbish.
5. (UK, Yorkshire, dialectal, uncountable, usually)A mess; the result of a blunder.

   “For when they saw awr Mary, / They made a mullock on it, / For they thowt 'at all them flaars / Had been put on Mary's bonnet.”

   “This attitude she never varied; but the face that was ordinarily so expressionless worked at times with strange emotions as she unfolded her story, and once or twice her voice needed clearing. "I made a mullock of it, you see," she explained.”

verb

1. (transitive)To clear waste material out of a mine.