Mining terms for a "burden"?

My story is set in a cave and I am trying to think of terms specific to mining/cave exploring or such for something that is useless and therefore a burden or something close to that. If it were set on the ocean I'd probably just go with "albatross" or "anchor" but it isn't and the setting is land-locked with no connections to the outside world/sailing environment so I can't even use that as an excuse. So, I wonder, is there any sort of mining equivalent? Preferably something one-word and could be used to refer to a person without being too strange-sounding.

I can't help with a caving term, but in mining the crap that's left after the raw ore is crushed and the productive ore has been removed for further processing is called the "tailings".

Hm, I'm not sure I could use that one. I want it to be something you could call a person as an insult and I think "tailings" might be a bit awkward as an insult.

Well, if one wishes for simplicity, there's always just "load."

I suppose that would work well enough though something specific to the settin would be nice.

You can do some research on miners' culture, look for slang of old mining regions, I guess there should be enough of it in English (I don't know - was it Wales that was the coal mining region, Cornwall, or else?). I'm not giving examples since, as you can guess, I know nothing of English mining slang.

Newcastle was the coal town of England, it's in the North.

Mining jargon seems harder to dig up than old sailing jargon though I've found a few words here and there, usually either not very fitting or possibly too obscure and wouldn't make sense for the setting (like the term "loup"). But things that would are too obscure irl (I've had no luck finding Turkish mining jargon)...

have you tried Arabic? If Turkish is an option, then Arabic naturally follows.

I've actually read a book or two filled to the brim with obscure professional jargon, and it worked great. You mentioned sailing jargon - incidentally, it was exactly that, you could get a whole long sentence in which, like, three words were known to a layman. In such a case you need to concentrate on it.

I can tell you the Silesian word for miner's uniform is bergmůńok. Did you know there is such a thing as miner's parade uniform? And this is what I mean, there are whole cultures with their own unique viewpoints.

The author of that story put all his research at the book's back, but I'm guessing you are not willing to go that far.

Perhaps shifting point-of-view? One character is a pro thinking in jargon terms, while the other a newbie with little knowledge of the surroundings. That would turn the obscurity problem into the problem of pulling The Watson well, or allow you to brag with the research while letting the important things be put in common terms.

If your setting includes a society with a mining tradition, or a character with mining experience or a background in such a culture, then doing the research would reward you with a feel of authenticity. I know nothing of Turkish mining, but Google gives some results for "history of mining in turkey", perhaps that is a start.