GoldPaq

Shallow Prospecting

Gold Mining has developed significantly since the days of the pick axe and gold rush.

Across the globe the obvious pieces of ore have long ago been claimed by prospectors and treasure hunters.

Heavy Industrial Mining

Because of this modern gold mining is generally done on a large, corporate scale, utilizing heavy machinery to strip the land and dig mine shafts to follow ore veins.

The romantic era of gold rushes and prospectors panning gold are virtually over.

An Introduction to Mining

The global gold mining industry employs hundreds of thousands of people in almost every field imaginable.

We’ve made no secret of our belief in recycling precious resources instead of destroying the earth in search of more. All mining methods are hard on the people, the land and the future.

As the gold on the surface of the planet has been swiped up mining techniques have become more and more invasive to find and extract the ore. Not to mention harder and harder on our planet.

However, the high demand for gold means that the business is widely profitable and continues to grind forward.

The History of Mining

There are many different ways of acquiring gold from the earth, all of which create terrible consequences to the environment.

Here is a general overview of a few of the methods used to extract gold ore.

Stream Diversion

Back in the day when gold still sat in the bottom of stream beds waiting for discovery, it was a lot easier to collect it.

One of the first methods used to collect shiny gold nuggets from streams and rivers was simply to re-route the course of the water. This exposed the riverbeds and the gold ore that had been washed down river through the natural erosion process.

This process was generally done in late summer or early fall during the dry season when stream and river levels were low.

Placer Mining

More commonly known as panning for gold. This method has been used in conjunction with many of the other processes as the final stage of collection.

Probably the easiest on the environment, placer mining is essentially fishing for gold.

So easy it can still be done for recreation in historical mining towns, panning for gold is accomplished using a shallow metal pan. River soil and water are swirled around in the pan to separate the gold from the soil.

Because of its density, the heavier gold pieces fall to the bottom of the pan for collection.

Winnowing

Practiced in Chile and Mexico, the winnowing method was initially developed to separate grains in agricultural communities and later applied to separating shiny nuggets of gold from the sand.

This is another method which isn’t terribly harmful to the environment, however it is also used in addition to other more invasive methods of mining ore.

Probably the easiest method too, winnowing is simply a practice of placing dry soil on wool serapes and bouncing it up and down. This causes the sand and debris to fly out into the wind and leaves the more dense gold on the serape.

Crushing Quartz

Another method developed in Mexico, quartz crushing is a simple process, but a taxing one.

Gold ore is generally found in connection with quartz, so as the name implies the quartz crystals are crushed using a grinder fitted with two large grinding stones.

This cumbersome device used to be powered by horses, mules, cattle or even men and effectively pulverized the soil that ran through it.

The crushed minerals were then taken and usually winnowed to eliminate fine dust and debris and ease the collection of gold pieces.

As technology progresses, this process has grown to far larger scale than a man and his donkey, today quartz crystals are mined, crushed and sorted on an industrial level.

The Rocker or Cradle

This is essentially a two-man gold washing machine, set on a slope so gravity can do its part to aid the process.

At the top of the slope is the receiving box where man number one scoops up buckets full of water and river rocks and dumps them in the box.

As the rocks and water go through the box they end up in a long trough with mesh in the bottom to act as a sieve. Man number two rocks the whole machine to shake out the rocks as the water flows down the trough.

The gold bits are collected in the mesh underneath the bottom of the trough and wooden pegs were fastened at the bottom of the trough to collect larger nuggets.

The Long Tom

Generally set on a downward slope to enable water to flow through it continuously, the Long Tom also uses gravity to help its cause.

Similar to the rocker, this is a two man operation, however it is a much easier process for everyone involved.

Man number one shovels riverbed dirt into the top of the machine and as it flows downhill with the water man number two removes large rocks and keeps the dirt moving.

The trough of the Long Tom is fitted with an iron plate with holes in it and as the dirt moves through the machine sand and gold drops through those holes.

A box sits under the Tom which collects the gold pieces as the sand washes away with the water.

The final separation of gold from other river rocks is then done by panning.

Waterwheel

This method was developed in China and powered various different mining operations. Its renewable source of energy being the strong currant of river water.

This method has been widely used, however has never been profitable enough to be developed on a large scale.

For a waterwheel to produce enough power it must be located where the currant is the strongest. Unfortunately those same strong channels generally washed gold bits down river into shallower, slower moving water.

Obviously this poses a problem, mining where there is nothing to mine doesn’t make sense.

Hardrock Mining

One of the hardest methods on our planet, hardrock mining is by far the most invasive.

The goal is to sink mine shafts deep into the earth and follow veins of gold ore. The shaft holes are usually created by drilling or explosives.

The ore is then extracted from these pits and sent to the surface in carts. Once it hits the surface the gold ore is removed from the hard rock (generally quartz) using heavy machinery.

The ore must then be further refined using chemicals to extract the gold.

The Stamp

The stamp is often used in connection with hard rock mining. Technically, it is the second part of the mining process.

Gold ore in its raw form is brought to the stamping machine from mines where it is placed in heavy iron crushers and pulverized.

Once the ore has been ground up, it is then separated from other metals and minerals through a variety of different methods.

Hydraulic Mining

This process uses pressurized water to erode the sides of riverbeds though to contain gold

In the gold rush days, prospectors couldn’t just open a spigot to get pressurized water, so they were forced to find rivers and streams at high elevations to supply their water source.

The water from these sources was then channelled into nozzles forcing a pressurized stream.

This high pressure stream was used to methodically blast apart the riverbed soil and force it down into strategically placed sluice boxes.

The soil collected in these boxes was usually separated by hand using pans.

Feel Like Recycling Your Gold Yet?

You can imagine just from this general description the damage gold mining can do.

The refinement process is not a clean one we admit, however recycling has to be better than mining on a large methodical scale

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If we have convinced you, give us a call 1-877-465-3720 or drop us a note and let us know.

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