What is the term for when miners and construction workers find the end of a tunnel or mine? I thought that it was called daylighting, but I am not sure. It is a specific term related to when the first light is seen when a tunnel/mine's end is reached.
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1 Answer
There is no term in common standard English.
I have found evidence for a the term daylighting in a list of miner's slang (this is particularly Cornish miner's slang)
"daylighting" - reaching surface with a raise.
("raise" -an excavation similar to a drift but which is driven (or drilled and blasted) upwards)
https://www.mindat.org/mesg-389739.html
Be aware that this use of the word is jargon and cant. It might be possible to guess the meaning from context, but very few English speakers would know this word. It is not found in the dictionaries.
In American jargon, daylighting means "Opening the roof of an old deep-mine to get the coal that the deep miners left behind".
"http://www.amrclearinghouse.org/Sub/landreclamation/remining/wpcamr-remining.pdf
In common English there is the phrase "see the light at the end of the tunnel". This is usually used metaphorically when there are "signs of improvement in a situation that has been bad for a long time" (Cambridge dictionary)