The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-03-09
WORKING PLACER MINES.
There Are Three Methods In Use-Pan-
ming, Rocking and Sluicins.

WORKING PLACER MINES.
There Are Three Methods In Use-Pan-
ming, Rocking and Sluicins.
There are three ways of working
placer ground, as the gravel beds o.
valley bottoms are called. They arc
panning, rocking and sluicing.
A pan is a broad, shallow dish Of
iron or copper. The miner throws
in a shovelful of sand and gravel,
fills the pan with water and then
with twisting sitting motion works
whatever gold may be therein down
to the bottom of the pan, where it
tends naturally on account Of its
greater weight.
AS he Sits the miner tips the pan
gradually and works off the gravei
and sand until he sees what is caught
in the lower edge of the pan. The
pan is most essential part Of the
prospector's outfit. 1t gives him his
clew, and it is easy to pack.
A rocker is quite too large to be
packed about when prospecting. 1t
is labor saving improvement on the
pan. with greater capacity and can
be worked with an easier motion. 1t
is a box feet long and feet wide,
made in two parts. The top part is
shallow, with a heavy iron bottom
full of holes quarter Of an inch in
diameter.
Beneath this in the lower half of
the box is heavy cloth set in an in
clined plane, sloping eight inches in
the length of the box, or about three
inches to the foot. Sometimes there
is series of these inclined planes,
one below the other, sloping in op-
posite directions. The whole is
mounted on rockers like cradle.
When the rocker is set up conyen-
lent to the "dirt" and the neces-
sary water, he fills the top compart-
ment with gravel, and then rocks
with one hand and pours in water
with the other. When the washing
is done, the nuggets will be found
in the top and the dust collected
along the blanket.
The finest dust, in grains too small
to see, will be in the mud at the
bottom. If quicksilver is mixed with
the mud, the gold will unite with
the quicksilver to form amalgam.
The amalgam, which is like putty,
is put in buckskin bag and squeez-
ed. The quicksilver comes through
the pores of the leather and leaves
the gold in the bag. The blankets
have to be rinsed in barrel every
now and then and the contents of
the barrel treated with mercury.
Sluicing is the most effective way
of all, and is done always whenever
there is sufficient headway of water
and lumber can be had for making
the sluice boxes.
Sluice boxes, OF troughs, 6 feet by
10 by 13 inches, are run end to end,
something like stovepipe. They ta-
per little to allow the end Of ono
to fit into the end of another, or else
one end of each box is fitted with a
collar. The bottoms of the boxes
have Stats and gratings in them to
catch the particles cf gold.
A sluice runs from dam down
along the route most convenient for
throwing in gravel from the "pay
dirt" There is no rocking or twist
ing sitting necessary, as the force OF
the water stirs up the gravel suf-
fciently to give the gold chance to
settle. The men stand alongside the
sluices and throw in gravel with a
strewing swing and are careful to
avoid splashing
When enough gold has collected,
the water is shut off, the gratings
are taken out and cleaned up"
ready to begin again. Sluicing is
three times as rapid work as rock
ing.--New York Press.