How is gold mined?

Answer 1

Once gold was discovered in an area, miners rushed to stake a claim to a piece of land to work on. Where gold was present in the beds of creeks or rivers, miners used the panning method to wash gravel until only the heavier gold remained. A similar, better method was to use a rocking cradle to separate gold from worthless stone. They rocked gravel and water in the cradle, sifting out lighter materials and leaving gold. Puddling was another version of panning. Huge tubs or vats, often worked by horses, were used to wash gold-bearing soil.

In areas where water was scarce, alluvial gold was mined by dry blowing--that is, miners separated gold from sand by dropping the material from a height and allowing the wind to blow the lighter material away. Once surface deposits were exhausted, miners had to sink shafts into the ground. They tried to follow the line of lode--that is, the gold in quartz veins living and travelling conditions on the goldfields of the 1800's were extremely rugged. Often there were no buildings for shelter. Miners encountered worse conditions as they travelled farther from civilization. Many miners returned home after a brief, unsuccessful, period on the goldfields. Very few made the fortune of which they had dreamed when they set out. Miners came to the goldfields from all parts of the world. For example, many Chinese miners migrated to California during the 1849 gold rush. Later, many of these Chinese miners moved to Australia and New Zealand.