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Elusive Gold:

Elusive Gold:. Gold Mining Methods. Characteristics of Gold. Rare, soft metal found in nature Easily melted or hammered into new shapes. Characteristics of Gold. A heavy metal found buried under sand and water, in rock cracks, or lining quartz rock. Gold Panning. One person operation

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Elusive Gold:

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  1. Elusive Gold: Gold Mining Methods

  2. Characteristics of Gold • Rare, soft metal found in nature • Easily melted or hammered into new shapes

  3. Characteristics of Gold • A heavy metal found buried under sand and water, in rock cracks, or lining quartz rock.

  4. Gold Panning • One person operation • Requires dipping the gold pan in water to wash away the sand and gravel leaving behind the heavier gold.

  5. Rocker/Cradle • An open box mounted on rockers that used water, the rocking motion and gravity to separate the gold from dirt.

  6. Rocker/Cradle Operated by three miners

  7. Long Tom • About 12 feet long • More efficient than the rocker Courtesy California State Library

  8. Long Tom What other tools are the miners using? Courtesy California State Library

  9. Sluice Box Series of riffle boxes connected together into a long chain that water flowed through. Courtesy California State Library

  10. Water = Gold • As mining methods changed, more water was needed. • Dams and flumes were built to store and redirect water.

  11. Hydraulic Mining • Powerful jets from water cannons (monitors) sprayed hillsides • Dirt and gravel washed into sluices

  12. Hydraulic Mining & the Environment What happened to all that dirt and gravel?

  13. Coyoting • A form of “dry mining” • Miners dug a hole straight into the ground. • Gravel then raised to the surface and washed in sluice boxes or crushed

  14. Coyoting • Often the shafts were not supported and many coyote miners lost their lives in collapsed holes Coyote mine shaft still visible at Red Rock Canyon State Park

  15. Hard Rock Mining/tunneling • Underground tunnels followed veins of gold found in quartz rock • Required large companies of men

  16. Hard Rock Mining • Miners used drills and blasting powder to remove the gold bearing quartz

  17. Hard Rock Mining Carts carried the ore to the surface where stamp mills crushed the quartz and gold was removed

  18. Hard Rock Mining & the Environment Why are underground mines still dangerous today?

  19. Columbia State Historic Park Bodie State Historic Park California Mining Legacy

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