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Placer mining is frequently used for precious metal deposits (particularly gold) and gemstones, both of which are often found in alluvial deposits—deposits of sand and gravel in modern or ancient stream beds, or occasionally glacial deposits.
Placer gold is gold that has broken loose from the main lode, as a result of weathering and erosion. Placers can be found both close to and far from the gold lode, depending on the forces at play. One example is placer gold that gets into a river, where it can travel thousands of miles downstream.
14 kwi 2015 · Unlike hardrock mining, which extracts veins of precious minerals from solid rock, placer mining is the practice of separating heavily eroded minerals like gold from sand or gravel. The word placer is thought to have come from Catalan and Spanish, meaning a shoal or sand bar.
Placer mining is an important source of gold, and was the main technique used in the early years of many gold rushes, including the California Gold Rush. Types of placer deposits include alluvium , eluvium , beach placers, aeolian placers and paleo-placers.
Placer mining, ancient method of using water to excavate, transport, concentrate, and recover heavy minerals from alluvial or placer deposits. Examples of deposits mined by means of this technique are the gold-bearing sands and gravel that settle out from rapidly moving streams and rivers at points.
14 sie 2019 · The most basic kind of gold placer mining is the using a prospector’s pan to swirl sediment-filled water so that unwanted sediment spills out to leave bits of gold behind. This method is based on the fact that gold is heavier than typical sediment.
Placer deposit, natural concentration of heavy minerals caused by the effect of gravity on moving particles. When heavy, stable minerals are freed from their matrix by weathering processes, they are slowly washed downslope into streams that quickly winnow the lighter matrix.