Gold Mining

• Sluicing- riffles where gold can drop into, less dense material is dropped out
• Panning-where pans are used to sift denser material to the bottom of the pan.

- The Greeks started gold mining in 323 B.C and Romans took over

-The Romans built sluices and mined hydraulically

- During the 19th-20th century there were many gold rushes

- Some Gold was found in the Fraser River which started the Cariboo Gold Rush in 1858.

-40 years after the Cariboo, the legendary Klondike Gold Rush in Yukon started. This was one of the most productive periods in Canadian gold-mining history, and within 2-4 years, mined over 20 million dollars in gold

Bibliography

What is Gold mining

http://www.brilliantearth.com/gold-mining-environment/

http://nodirtygold.earthworksaction.org/impacts#.VFW6Cmd0zIU

http://www.colby.edu/academics_cs/courses/GE127/upload/Eisler2003.pdf

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Gold.html

http://www.gold-traders.co.uk/gold-information/how-is-gold-mined.asp

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/gold/

http://www.miningfacts.org/environment/what-is-the-role-of-cyanide-in-mining/

https://www.pwc.com/en_GX/gx/mining/publications/assets/pwc-the-direct-economic-impact-of-gold.pdf

http://www.ehow.com/how_10050431_make-flux-gold-refining.html

https://www.museumca.org/goldrush/fever19-hy.html

http://wells.entirety.ca/lode.htm

http://wells.entirety.ca/mining.htm

http://wells.entirety.ca/terms.htm#p

http://www.infomine.com/library/publications/docs/SummaryFactSheetCyanide.pdf

http://www.historynet.com/klondike-gold-rush

http://onlygold.com/Info/History-Of-Gold.asp

http://ucresources.net/why_gold_silver/gold_role/

http://www.oma.on.ca/en/ontariomining/EconomicContribution.asp

http://mine-engineer.com/mining/minproc/cyanide_leach.htm

Gold Mining

• The process of extracting gold or gold ores from the ground
• Gold comes in many forms such as nuggets or flakes.
• There are two type of deposits, lode (vein), and placer deposits
• There are many techniques on mining gold

Techniques of Mining

Brennan Plunkett

Placer

Deposits

Vein

Deposits

-Gold mixed with sand/gravel

- Can contain large pieces of gold in the form of nuggets.

-Gold is washed down from lode deposits

- The main methods are hydraulic mining, dredging and sluicing

- These use gravity, water flow and vibrations

-Gold is mixed with other minerals

-Gold is obtained by drilling, blasting or shoveling

-Can run deep underground

• Hydraulic mining

-Uses pressure jets to erode or dislodge rock or other sediments

• Dredging

-involves extracting gold from underwater

History

Environmental Impacts

- Gold mining produces toxic waste in the form of cyanide and mercury

-It destroys environment by getting rid of overburden (trees, plants, wildlife, habitats)

- Mining pollutes the water and land with cyanide

-Air pollution can be caused by transportation trucks

Health Impacts

- Silicosis

-Decreased life expectancy

-Increased frequency of cancer of the trachea, bronchus, lung, stomach, and liver

-Risk of developing an insect-borne disease like malaria and dengue fever

-Noise-induced hearing loss

-Certain bacterial and viral diseases

-Diseases of the blood, skin and skeletal system

Societal/Economic Importance

• vital to fragile economies, this is where they gain most of their export revenues
• creates more jobs (Klondike Gold Rush 30,000 workers involved)
• Gold has many uses in everyday life because it does not tarnish/rust

-medical equipment

-airbags

-laptops

-cellphones

-jewelry

Chemical Reactions

flux mixture: borax and soda ash