Definition of "mullock"

(now UK dialect) Rubbish, waste matter.  examples

(Australia, New Zealand, mining) Mining waste or ore processing waste:

1. (Australia, New Zealand, mining) Overburden: waste material generated while searching for minerals or while mining, such as when sinking a shaft.  examples

2. (Australia, New Zealand, mining) Tailings: waste rock from which the wanted gold, minerals, opal, etc., has been extracted.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.

     1875, New Zealand House of Representatives, Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives of New Zealand, Volume 2, page 30

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

     1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter X, in Capricornia‎, page 167

   • 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.

     1996, Janette Turner Hospital, Oyster, paperback edition, Virago Press, page 4

   • 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.

     2003 October 15, “Public to Have a Say on Waste Dumping”, in ABC News, Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Nonsense, rubbish.  examples

(UK, Yorkshire, dialect) A mess; the result of a blunder.  quotations  examples

(transitive, mining) To clear waste material out of a mine.  examples