GOLD MINING TECHNIQUES

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GOLD MINING TECHNIQUES!!!!

• BY BEN HASKELL!!

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SMALL SCALE MINING!!
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The Cradle

• The cradle was one of the most successful mining
  method of the gold rush period. The cradle
  looked like two boxes, one on top of the other.
  Inside the boxes were slats to regulate the water
  flow. On top was a sieve to remove big rocks and
  on the bottom of the cradle were slats to catch
  the gold. Water was poured through the cradle to
  make this effect. The rubbish came out the end.
  The cradle was rocked to swill the water and the
  dirt.

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Teamwork

• Many miners worked in teams to maximise the
  amount of gold they found. These team mates were
  usually business partners or friends. They split
  the licence fee amongst themselves and shared all
  the gold they found. These teams from two to up
  to 10 would mine shafts and would rely on each
  other to take care of sick or wounded miners.

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Shaft Mining

• The shaft mine was a small mine dug vertically in
  to the ground by teams of miners. These mines
  were shallow as the miners didnt have the time
  nor the equipment nor the money to dig the deep
  holes that the big companies mined. It would not
  have been worth the miners while digging so deep
  to reach the extensive quartz veins below the
  surface. Another reason they were small was
  because they mined meticulously to extract any
  gold in the mine and as soon as the flow of gold
  wavered, they would leave.

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Large Scale Mining
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Reef Mining

• The reef mine was introduced after the initial
  gold rush when alluvial gold became harder to
  find. Rich men funded big machines to dig down
  to the extensive gold-bearing quartz veins and
  paid the miners wages. This was very attractive
  for the miners because it was becoming too
  expensive to continue mining shafts and that they
  would get paid to mine gold. Some miners said
  that it took the splendour out of gold mining
  because all the gold found went to the boss.

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The Stamper

• The stamper was a big machine that could extract
  ore from rocks by crushing it. Both the stamper
  and the engine were expensive and could only be
  purchased by very rich people. The stamper was
  a series of heavy weights attached to cam shafts.
  The stamper was powered by engines or they were
  powered by the water wheel. The cam shafts were
  pulled up and then dropped on the ore crushing it
  to a fine powder. The powder was then washed
  with Mercury which was then evaporated leaving
  the gold behind. The stamper was usually used in
  conjunction with the reef mine because of its
  efficiency.

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Deep Sinking

• Many rich men funded mines very deep down because
  of the gold-bearing quartz veins. These were
  different to the reef mines because reef mines
  didnt go down as far as the deep sink mines.
  Deep sink mines were very expensive because very
  often they would have to drill through a big
  layer of rock without finding any gold. Because
  of this, the employer of the miners would be in
  debt. There were many upsides to deep sink
  mining, however. Deep down were numerous large
  veins in which there was much more gold than reef
  mines. There were many clues to finding gold
  such as galena, lead sulphide, mundie and
  sulphur.

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The Gold Factory

• The gold factory was a gold processing plant that
  would process gold ore with a series of stampers.
  The mining companies would pay the gold factory
  money for crushing the ore and the factory would
  then give back the crushed gold. If you owned
  one of these companies, it would be like a
  licence to print money as these companies made
  lots of business.

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The Water Wheel

• The water wheel was not actually a mining
  technique, it was a power source for some of the
  mining techniques. It could provide the power
  for the gold factory or it could provide light
  for the mines. The water wheel was a big
  apparatus that had numerous buckets. Because the
  water wheel needed flowing water to function, the
  water wheel was positioned over a strong river.
  As the buckets collected water, the weight tuned
  cogs in turn turning turbines making electricity.
  

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Credits

• www.westcoast.org.nz/Slot_IN_files/IN0007.html
• www.museum.victoria.au/windows/gold/model.asp
• www.oldmogotown.com.au/stamper.html
• www2.nature.nps.gov/geology/aml/
• www.scienceviews.com/photo/browse/SIA0608.jpg
• www.homepage.eircom.net/rcag/history/dublin.html
• www.langintro.com/seoul /museum0.htm