What is Placer's mining?

Placer mining is a group of mining methods that use water to separate valuable minerals or ores from the surrounding sediment. It can be used to restore platinum, tin and diamonds, but most often gold. A very rough form of placer mining was used by gold prospectors during the California gold fever in the mid -18th century. Since then, this technology has proceeded to allow the processing of a larger volume of material. Modern mining methods include excavating and release.

Placer mining is named after the deposits from which the material is mined. Placer deposits are concentrations of heavy minerals that are formed when minerals are washed, weather or floods, down the slope into the streams. Minerals settle in one place because the flow flow is not strong enough to move them further. Placer deposits usually occur in streams, beaches and gravel left with running water.

The most basic and perhaps best known method of Placer mining is shifting. The only one that the miner needs isBasin, usually slightly larger than the average plate. The miner puts a small amount of sediment into the bottom of the pan and then fills the pan with water. Then it swirls the water around and allows it to washed on the sides of the pelvis. In this way, the ordinary sediment is washed alongside, while gold or other valuable materials remain behind.

Placer mining works because some precious metals tend to be denser than the sediment that surrounds them. When the water is poured or plunges on the sediment, the movement of the water is enough to retire the sediment, but it is not strong enough to move with gold. This principle works with very small gold flakes.

Shifting is still used by fans and a small miner, but it is very difficult to work. More sophisticated methods must be used for the mining of large areas. Sluicing and dredging are often used individually and in conjunction.

Sluicing requires a box for flushing, which is basically just rectangularA box on the slope. The top is open and the bottom has a series of wood or metal bars that break the current, because water and dirt are thrown into the open top. The lighter sediment flows from the bottom of the box, but the heavier gold is trapped by breaks in the stream caused by the bars. Exraction is really just a way to collect the material to be released. Usually used suction to vacuum sediment from bed of stream or river.