Mining

Mining Techniques Source: http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/41739/20040505-0000/www.statelibrary.vic.gov.au/slv_/exhibitions/goldfields/techniq/techniq.htm

'The operation which procured Brown and me the three guineas’ worth of gold is technically called tin-dish washing, and is very simply performed. The pan itself is generally about eighteen inches or more across the top, and three or four inches deep, with sloping sides. Into this vessel, the earth - which is technically called dirt - is thrown, when it is held by both hands in a slanting direction, and immersed in the water several times, in order that the looser and lighter particles of sand may be carried off by it. The pan is all the while kept agitated from side to side, to cause the gold to separate, and sink to the bottom, where, if there is any, it is soon found.’ || || ‘In new ground holes are sunk of every shape and of every size, with a distance of six or ten feet betwixt each hole. They sink till they come upon what is called the bottom, and if they see the bottom is good they commence immediately to tunnel as fast as they can... Having bottomed our hole (the bottom is generally pipe-clay), we pick up a good deal of gold - suppose four ounces - ... Picking the gold up thus we call ‘nuggeting.’ ...Having now come to the bottom, we begin to drive a tunnel about four or five feet in height and width, throwing all the dirt we dig out at the mouth of the hole as useless, with the exception of a few inches of stuff taken off the bottom, which we wash. We tunnel on in this way till we can go no farther, owing to meeting with other men’s tunnels. The ground having been then all wrought, we wash all our stuff and find another hole.’ ||  || ‘I have been on all the olden fields of Victoria - over their flats, through their gullies, and amongst their reefs. I have fossicked on their surface (* Fossicking means picking, prying, or examining minutely), examined their shafts, crawled through their drives, and worked in their quartz tunnels...’ ||  || ‘With the operation of cradling you are perhaps already acquainted: for the sake of others, however, I shall here describe it as clearly as I can. The instrument is about six or eight feet long, with its head covered with a coarse sieve, and its foot perforated with a hole. To work this machine close to a stream or a water-hole it requires four men - one to dig, another to wheel, a third to rock, and a fourth to keep dashing the water on the earth to effect the sifting process. The sieve prevents the coarse stones from falling into the cradle, whilst the water gradually softens and washes away the earth, which is carried away by the foot of the machine, leaving the particles of gold mixed with sand behind some small cleets which, at given intervals, are nailed across the bottom all the way down. When all the earth is washed away, the rocker and the washer cast their longing eyes into the sieve to see if there be a “nugget” too large to get through the holes, and, if not, the sieve is displaced, and the stones thrown away. This is the process carried on from “morn till dewy eve”’. ||  || ‘It was at Forest Creek that the puddling system was first carried into effect, by means of which the auriferous soil is cleansed in a rude, simple, but wholesale way...The machine, when it is possible, is erected on a site commanded by a stream or reservoir of water, and admitting of an inclination sufficient to carry off the sludge. The operation is performed by shovelling in the dirt and admitting a supply of water, the action of the harrow breaking the lumps and mashing all into a thick fluid compound, when the gold is disintegrated, and by its superior gravity falls to the bottom.’ ||  ||
 * **Tin Washing / Panning**
 * **Nuggeting**
 * **Fossicking**
 * **Cradling**
 * **Puddling**