at bank

• at the bank

From at +‎ bank (“ground at the top of a shaft”).

at bank

1. (mining, obsolete) On the surface; at or around the mine entrance.
   • 1861, North of England Institute of Mining Engineers, Transactions, volume 9, page 170:

     This case would, no doubt, excite the attention of all professional men, and they would, he thought, ventilate the flues more extensively than they had done hitherto; but it had staggered him as to whether it was advisable to place the boilers underground or at bank. Unless the pits were very deep, he thought the boilers should be placed at bank, and the steam conveyed underground.

   • January 1895, “Solutions to Questions which Appeared in the November Number and for which Prizes Have Been Awarded.”, in The Colliery Engineer and Metal Miner, volume 15, number 6:

     We are using compressed air for hauling and pumping in a coal seam at a depth of 900 feet from the surface, and strange to say the pressure gauge attached to the air receiver at bank reads 90 pounds pressure per square inch above the pressure of the atmosphere, whereas, the pressure gauge attached to an air receiver in the mines reads higher than that at the bank.

   • 1897 May 25, John Wilson, “Liability of Certain Employers to Workmen for Injuries”, in The Parliamentary Debates, 4th series (House of Commons), volume 49, United Kingdom, page 1314:

     He had in his hands the balance sheet of that society, which covered Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, and the ironstone mines of Cleveland, and included in its membership the whole of the men at work down the mines and a very large number of those working at bank, the total number of members being nearly 123,000.