Gold Mining

Panning for gold may be what most people think of when it comes to gold mining, but there are several different ways that gold can be mined.

Sluicing is one option that involves a man-made channel, called a sluice box. The box is placed in water and because of riffles in the bottom of the box a dead zone is created in the water’s current. This dead zone allows for the gold to fall out of suspension and become trapped beneath the riffles.

Another method to extract gold is suction dredging. Essentially an underwater vacuum, suction dredging brings up a variety of streambed materials and passes them through a hose and then a recovery system floating on the water. The heavier pieces of gold are trapped and the remaining materials are passed back into the water.

Although very damaging to the environment, hydraulic mining uses water under pressure to remove rock and sediment. Originally used by the Romans, hydraulic mining was a large-scale way early California gold miners used to find the precious metal. The practice had a major impact on waterways in the state and increased the likelihood of floods in many areas.

Gold is often found in large quantities in rock, especially igneous rock. Hard rock mining is the process used to extract the gold in this case. Once a tunnel has been dug into the rock, miners can begin to extract the gold from the pockets of ore. The gold is then milled by organizing the ore by size, then crushing the rock and finally extracting the gold.

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Learn More:

• Gold Refining

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Gold was first discovered thousands of years ago in its natural state, in streams, which lead to mining all over the world. Its brilliance, natural beauty, great malleability and resistance to tarnish made it enjoyable to work with. Gold gave rise to the concept of money itself. Today gold is used for jewelry fabrication, industrial application, and medical uses, by governments and central banks and by private investors.