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Someone once saw me picking out cashews from a bowl of mixed nuts and said I was [forgotten slang verb here]. I asked what that verb meant and she explained that it was a slang term that miners used to use to describe the act of going through mining tailings to pull out the valuable minerals that had been missed during the mining process. Does anyone know what that [forgotten slang verb] might be?

One additional piece of information - the person said the term does not describe a regular mining task. It is pejorative - like they are almost a claim jumper.

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    Gleaning is used for foodstuffs; it could be extended.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Aug 10, 2022 at 22:08
  • Although it is not the mining term I am looking for, gleaning has the same feel of that other word - it would imply examining, making judgements, setting priorities.
    – Evan Jones
    Commented Aug 10, 2022 at 22:12
  • Mudlarking means picking over i.e. scavenging in mud, typically river banks but it could be tailing
    – djs
    Commented Aug 10, 2022 at 22:42
  • 'Guddling' is used when one catches fish by dipping hands in a stream and tickling the fish, then hoiking them out. Traditionally, poachers used the technique. One is selecting a single fish, not casting a net to catch many. So it may be the appropriate term.
    – Nigel J
    Commented Aug 11, 2022 at 8:05
  • Although it is not the exact verb she used, Mudlarking is the closest I have heard so far... very narrow applicability with not a lot of alterative uses.
    – Evan Jones
    Commented Aug 11, 2022 at 13:24

4 Answers 4

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I guess the word was scavenging. Lexico has

scavenge
VERB

Search for and collect (anything usable) from discarded waste.

They would have to consider non-cashews to be waste!

The word is used in various news stories in connection with mining. BBC News has

‘I feel guilty for surviving’: The deadly hunt for jade in Myanmar

Si Thu Phyo was scavenging for leftover gemstones when he felt the earth shake loose around him.

And in The Independent

South Africa's illegal gold miners forced to scavenge in abandoned shafts in a perilous attempt to survive

The term has a formal usage in connection with mineral extraction as given by the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy in their definition of

scavenger
i. Any chemical that is added to a system or a mixture to consume, or to convert to an inactive form, small quantities of impurities or undesired materials.

ii. In flotation, a rougher cell in which the tailings, before being rejected as waste, are subjected to a scavenging flotation treatment. Concentrating tables are also used as scavenger machines.

iii. In metallurgical operations, an active metal added to combine with oxygen and/or nitrogen in the molten metal and so cause removal of impurities into slag.

The pejorative sense is shown here by Lexico

scavenger
NOUN

An animal that feeds on carrion, dead plant material, or refuse.

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High grader

High-grader - One who steals rich ore, especially gold, from a mine.

Note that they aren't picking through tailings. That doesn't make sense in light of your cashew "gorp picking". They are filtering the highest quality bit out of virgin material.

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fossicking

fossick: to search for something amongst other things; to look for gold or valuable stones, especially in places where these things were once dug from the ground (thefreedictionary)

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  • Well, not the word she used but that seems like a very similar meaning.... so now what is the American version of that (I think fossicking is Australian)?
    – Evan Jones
    Commented Aug 11, 2022 at 14:11
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You were being asked not to cherry-pick the pricey cashews from the inexpensive peanuts.

That is, to select in a self-serving manner, as a shopper would pick the blackest of cherries for the sweetest of fruit, and leave the rest not only in disarray, but of lesser value ... due to your cherry picking.

=> Oxford's Lexico has "The company should buy the whole airline and not just cherry-pick its best assets."

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  • I don't think so. Cherry picking certainly means selecting only the valuable parts, but implies an unwillingness to pay the honest price of accepting the less valuable items that would normally come with the set
    – djs
    Commented Aug 11, 2022 at 8:27

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