Gold washing

“ Long after the present localities, where the washing{107} of gold is prosecuted, are entirely abandoned, gold-washing will be continued by manual labour upon the plains and hills where the gold lies at a much greater depth beneath the soil than it does in the ravines and river banks, and where of course more severe labour is required. The era which follows the present successful gold-washing operations will be one, when, by a union of capital, manual labour, and machinery, joint-stock companies will perform what individuals now do. ”

“ As a matter of fact, we were both in the dead-water of reaction from hard, long-continued labour, and we could not bring ourselves to face with any enthusiasm the resuming of gold washing. Revulsion shook us at the mere thought of getting down in a hot, glaring ravine and moving heavy earth and rocks. Yet we had not made a fortune, nor much of a beginning at one, and neither of us was what is known as a quitter. We realized perfectly that we would go on gold mining.
“What we need is a recess,” Johnny ended, “and I move we take it. ”

“ The gold in new Placer is also got in two ways, by washing and by mining. The principal place for gold washing is about one mile southwest from the town, at the toot of a naked granitic mountain, the so-called "Bonanza." A cluster of houses, or rather huts, form here a small village, whose inhabitants live exclusively by gold washing, but look as poor and wretched as if they never handled any gold of their own. ”

“ Valuable gold deposits are known to exist, but no one has had the enterprise or the capital to undertake their development, simply because costly machinery is required and would call for a heavy investment. Most of the gold washing is done by natives with rude, home-made implements, and the total production reported for 1902 was 517,639 ounces, valued at $20 an ounce. ”

“ The process of gold washing is carried out by women at home, and by the aged and adults in their spare hours. The ashes, sweepings, and refuse from the goldsmiths’ shops are collected on payment of a sum ranging from one rupee to ten rupees per mensem, and are brought in baskets to a convenient place alongside their huts, where they are stored for a variable time. ”

“ The earth, which had been previously washed in the common rockers, is to be re-washed in a more scientifically constructed apparatus, and the minute particles of gold, which escape in the common mode of washing, and which are invisible to the naked eye, are to be separated by a chemical process.
As yet no actual mining operations have been commenced in the gold region of California, for the two reasons, that they require a combination of labour and capital, and that the gold-washings have thus far proved so profitable as to make them the most desirable. ”

“ This is a simple explanation of the process of gold-washing in the placers of California. At present, however, instead of dipping and pouring on water by hand, it is usually led on by a hose or forced by a pump, thereby giving a better and more constant stream, and saving the labour of one man. The excavation is continued until the solid rock is struck, or the water rushing in renders it impossible to obtain any more earth, when a new place is opened. We found the gold on the Yuba in exceedingly fine particles, and it has always been considered of a very superior quality. ”

“ Before the party returned to tea I had washed out all the stuff, and procured from it nearly two pennyweights of gold-dust, worth about 6s. or 7s.
Tin-dish-washing is generally done beside a stream, and it is astonishing how large a quantity of "dirt" those who have the knack of doing it well and quickly can knock off in the course of the day. ”

“ The simple individual pan-washers are the first in the field, but it soon ceases to be profitable to this class of operators, and they soon move on in search of richer "diggings." The other means are employed on greater or less scales of magnitude, by combinations of men and capital. All the forms of gold-washing run into each other, indeed ”

“ The Cornish miner laughed, and, as he walked away, explained to his astonished companions that this was a common dodge.
“The rascals,” he said, “hide a little gold in a claim that is valueless, and, digging it up as you have seen, wash it out in the presence of newcomers, in the hope of taking them in. But here we come to a party who will show you a little of legitimate gold-washing.”
They approached, as he spoke, a bend of the river where several men were busy at work—some with pick and shovel, some with the cradle, and others with tin washing-pans. ”

“ The rivers and torrents carry down the golden sand, which in many localities is likewise to be found in places where there is no water, but there it is invisible, but in those that water flows over the gold dust gleams out. And flushing with water that has to be fetched the arid spots, they make the gold dust glitter, and by digging wells and by [98] devising other means they get out the gold by washing the sand, and what are called gold washings are now more numerous than the gold diggings. ”

“ The Easterners do not appear to have extracted the metals from their ores either in Iberia or in Northern Europe. Tin-stone and silver-bearing lead were used for ballast for their ships, and they made anchors of lead. Gold washed from river beds could be easily packed in small bulk. A people who lived by hunting and fishing were not likely to be greatly interested in the laborious process of gold-washing. ”

“ The selective agency of specific gravity which is utilised in gold-washing does not create the original differences between gold-dust and dust of all other kinds. But these differences being presented by as many different bodies in nature, the gold-washer takes advantage of the selective agency in question, and, by using it as a cause of segregation, is enabled to separate the gold from all the earths with which it may happen to be mixed. So far as the objects of the gold-washer are concerned, it is immaterial with what other earths the gold-dust may happen to be mixed. ”

“ This is gold washing as beginners practice it in California and Mexico and Peru, and wherever gold-dust is found. They have been working with a pan, they haven't got such a thing as a cradle in this country. ”

“ The quantity of cement stones is said to be practically inexhaustible.
One department of mining enterprise, which has remained unexploited from the time of the Romans until the last few years, is that of alluvial gold washing. The Romans washed for gold over a larger area, and on a much larger scale, than the chroniclers of the times were aware of. ”

“ Around the base of the rock was a filling up of gravel and clay, which we removed with much labour, when our eyes were gladdened with the sight of gold strewn all over its surface, and intermixed with a blackish sand. This we gathered up and washed in our pans, and ere night four of us had dug and washed twenty-six ounces of gold, being about four hundred and{72} sixteen dollars. The process of pan-washing is the simplest mode of separating the golden particles from the earth with which it is amalgamated. A common-sized tin pan is filled with the soil containing the gold. ”

“ The continued motion of the machine, and the constant stream of water pouring through it, washes the earth over the various bars or rifflers to the “tail,” where it runs out, while the gold, being of greater specific gravity, sinks to the bottom, and is prevented from escaping by the rifflers. When a certain amount of earth has been thus washed (usually about sixty pans full are called “a washing”) , the gold, mixed with a heavy black sand, which is always found mingled with gold in California, is taken out and washed in a tin pan, until nearly all the sand is washed away. ”

“ In explanation, it may be mentioned that the streets are metaled with quartz, which is crushed to powder by vehicles, and that the sweepings often give a very lucrative return in gold-washing. Here the gold return is largest when the streets are left unswept! ”

“ These are the extreme cases of good fortune, however; other enterprises are run at a loss, or with varying result; but the gold washing, as a general thing pay good wages, and a fair return to the capital invested. ”

“ The dirt is here placed, and the constant supply of water, after well washing the stuff, runs out through a hole made at the foot of the cradle. The gold generally rests on a wooden shelf under the hopper, though sometimes a good deal will run down with the water and dirt into one of the compartments at the bottom, and to separate it from the sand or mud, tin-dish-washing is employed. ”

“ We threw off the top earth and commenced our washings with the gravel, which proved so rich, that, excited by curiosity, we weighed the gold extracted from the first washing of fifty{73} pansful of earth, and found seventy-five dollars, or nearly five ounces of gold to be the result. We made six washings during the day, and placed in our common purse that night a little over two pounds,—about four hundred dollars worth of gold dust. ”

“ There are several persons among the gold-diggers here who rarely use any implement but their wooden bowls. Into these they scrape the dirt left by others, which they stir and whirl till the gold gradually works its way to the bottom. The earth, as these heavier particles descend, is thrown off by the hands, and the gold remains. This process is what they call dry washing: it is resorted to where there is no water in the vicinity, and will answer pretty well where the gold is found in coarse grains ”

“ It is destined to effect great changes in the process of washing gold in this country, and particularly when the miner that now works independently and alone will find his labor very hard and not paying him sufficiently, since this machine being worked with mercury, saves the most minute particles of gold that escape the eye, and thus gives in aggregate a greater result than can be sometimes obtained by washing large pieces alone. ”

“ On account of the inconvenience of washing, the people have, up to this time, only gathered the metal on the banks, which is done simply with a shovel, filling a shallow dish, bowl, basket, or tin pan, with a quantity of black sand, similar to the class used on paper, and washing out the sand by movement of the vessel. It is now two or three weeks since the men employed in those washings have appeared in this town with gold, to exchange for merchandise and provisions. I presume nearly 20,000 dollars of this gold has as yet been so exchanged. ”

“ This appliance, working somewhat slowly, swings on rockers from side to side, and is usually employed in mills where, owing to the complexity of the ore, difficulties have been met with in amalgamating the gold. Riffles are provided and even very fine gold is sometimes effectively recovered by their aid.
The Frue vanner will, as a rule, act well when the pulp is sufficiently fine. It is really a adaptation of an old and simple apparatus used in China and India for washing gold dust from the sands of rivers. ”

“ Gold is found almost invariably in the metallic state. It occurs as gold dust in the sands of various rivers, and in the alluvial soil of auriferous districts, from both of which it is obtained by the simple process of washing. Traces of it are constantly found in the iron and other pyrites of the more ancient rocks. Sometimes it occurs beautifully crystallised in the cubic form, associated with quartz, oxide of iron, and other substances, in regular veins. In the gold fields of California and Australia lumps of nearly pure gold have been discovered in abundance during the last few years. ”

“ This process was, no doubt, a profitable one to the Portuguese, and it is probable that, with the improved plan by means of mercury, the sands would be lucrative. I had an opportunity of examining the gold-dust from different parts to the east and northeast of Tete. There are six well-known washing-places. These are called Mashinga, Shindundo, Missala, Kapata, Mano, and Jawa. From the description of the rock I received, I suppose gold is found both in clay shale and quartz. ”

“ Some women, however, by long practice, become so well acquainted with the nature of the sand, and the mode of washing it, that they will collect gold, where others cannot find a single particle. The gold dust is kept in quills, stopt up with cotton, and the washers are fond of displaying a number of these quills in their hair. Generally speaking, if a person uses common diligence, in a proper soil, it is supposed that as much gold may be collected by him in the course of the dry season as is equal to the value of two slaves. ”

“ They often bring their families with them. I saw one family, the father of which, assisted by the older children, was “panning out” gold on a stream near his rude home made of hides. The mother was washing clothes, while the infant was swinging in a basket made fast to the branches overhead. An interesting girl of five years, with a tiny pick and spade, was digging in a hole, already sunk two feet, and putting the dirt in a pan, which she would take to the stream and wash, putting the scale or two of gold into a dipper a little larger than a thimble. A heavy rain drove us home, wet and cold. ”