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So how does a placer mine work? It's a combination of heavy machinery, natural resources and environmental factors that need to work in concert in order for the miner to process as much ground as possible.
Let's take a closer look at the basic structure of a placer mine. Use the buttons on the right hand side below to learn more about the role each part plays during the process of mining.
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And here's a simplified overview of the mining process itself:
- Using a track or wheel-based loader, the miner digs into the paystreak and collects a bucket of gravel.
- The load of gravel is driven to the sluice box and dumped onto the grizzly.
- The coarse parts of the load (boulders and larger rocks) are filtered out by the grizzly and fall away. The rest is washed through the sluice box.
- The loader returns to the placer to collect another load (and so on).
- After dumping a number of buckets, tailings build up around the sluice box, and need to be cleared away.
- Once hundreds of buckets have been transported and emptied, it becomes time to turn off the loader, shut down the water, and empty the sluice box -- a process known as the "clean-up". At this point, a quick pan of the collected dirt can reveal the concentration of the mined gold deposits.
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