method for recovering coal (coal mining) by boring into a coal seam at the base of strata exposed by excavation. Normally one of the lowest-cost techniques of mining, it is limited to horizontal or slightly pitched seams that have been exposed by geologic erosion. Augering is usually associated with contour strip-mining, recovering coal for a limited depth beyond the point where stripping becomes uneconomical because the seam of coal lies so far beneath the surface.