Hot dry rock geothermal energy makes use of hot fluids found naturally in basement rock; but such HWR conditions are rare. By far the bulk of the world’s geothermal resource base (over 98%) is in the form of basement rock that is hot but dry—with no naturally available water. This means that HDR technology is applicable almost everywhere on earth (hence the claim that HDR geothermal energy is ubiquitous). Typically, the temperature in those vast regions of the accessible crystalline basement rock increases with depth. This geothermal gradient, which is the principal HDR resource variable, ranges from less than 20 °C/km to over 60 °C/km,
Underground mining (soft rock) Underground mining (soft rock) Underground soft rock mining is a group of underground mining techniques used to extract coal, oil shale, potash and other minerals or geological materials from sedimentary ("soft") rocks. Because deposits in sedimentary rocks are commonly layered and relatively less hard, the mining methods used differ from those used to mine deposits in igneous or metamorphic rocks ("see Underground mining (hard rock)"). Underground mining techniques also differ greatly from those of surface mining. The number sign, or hash sign (#) is often used as shorthand to denote shaft or seam, as in 4# (4 shaft or seam