Elusive Gold:

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
California Mining Legacy