Sluice Jewelry,2

Mining Gold- The Process from the Gold Mine to Your Home

“Even the just may sin with an open chest of gold before them.”

- Ancient Latin proverb.

 

Gold has been one of the major drivers of human enterprise for hundreds of years. Expeditions have been organized, new lands have been explored, wars have been fought, civilizations have been built and destroyed, poems have been written, and songs have been sung – all for the sake of this yellow metal.

 

The search of gold has inspired considerable human efforts. This includes Voyage to America of Christopher Colombus in 1492 and the Spanish annexation of the Incas and Aztecs in the 16th century. Later on, in the 19th century, the California Gold Rush inspired more than 300,000 people to rush to California from across the world, accelerating development of the region through the establishment of railroads and commercial establishments. Even today, the mining of gold and fashioning it into jewelry is a multi-billion dollar business.

 

Gold mining consists of the processes and techniques employed to obtain gold from the ground. The different gold mining techniques currently used are:

 

1. Placer mining

Refers to the mining of alluvial deposits for minerals.

 

a) Panning – A manual system for sorting gold but usually not commercially feasible. Involves shaking a pan filled with sand and gravel (that may hold gold) in water, when heavier gold settles down at the bottom.

 

b) Metal detecting – A metal detector is used to walk around and detect possible deposits of gold.

 

c) Sluicing – Gold is extracted through elimination in man-made channels called sluice boxes placed in streams. Gold-bearing constituents hybrid with water flows through the channel, when heavier gold particles are trapped in riffles. Commercial operations utilize screening plants to remove larger alluvial materials, like boulders earlier concentrating the rest in a sluice box.

 

d) Dredging – This involves the use suction dredges that float on water and suck out gold deposits. A suction dredge consists of a sluice box supported by pontoons, connected to a suction hose which is controlled by the miner working beneath the water.

 

2. Hard rock mining

Refers to the mining of gold when it is encased in rock, rather than establish as particles in loose lees as in placer deposits. Hard rock mining produces most of the gold that is mined today.

 

a) Open-pit mining – Is used when gold deposits are found close by the surface. A pit is dug with stepped walls, disposed at an edge to minimize hazard from rock falls. Gold is in general extracted at the rate of 1 to 2 ppm (parts per million, equal to grams per ton).

 

b) Underground mining – Requires tunneling into solid rock to extract gold-bearing deposits, which are then processed to recover gold.

 

Gold ore processing

 

Gold is extracted from the mined ore by dissolving it in cyanide clarification. Dissimilar to most solvents, a cyanide solution is proficient to dissolve gold. Since cyanide is greatly poisonous, exceptional admonishment is exercised during the process. The dissolved gold is then obtained through filtration and then hybrid with dissimilar metals to produce workable alloys like 22K gold used in jewelry.

About the Author

GoldSold is a local Dallas company that specializes in buying gold, buy gold, sell gold and hosting ‘Gold Parties’. We pay the highest prices for gold jewelry, diamonds, and platinum.

Fort Worth Gem and Mineral show 2009 part 1 of 2

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