History of Gold Mining

The gold mining industry has been on this earth for a long period of time but many may not know where this industry got its start. The first miners of gold were in the area of the Kolar gold Fields located in India. This happened before the 2nd and the 3rd centuries AD n India. Golden objects that exist today have been traced to this area in India through analysis of impurities which contained an 11% silver concentration that was found only in the artifacts of this area. The gold mining industry grew from this area and when India entered the Chola period of the 9th and 10th centuries the scale of gold mining grew to an even larger scale. During the start of the gold mining industry the Kolar gold fields were mined to a depth of 50 meters in the 5th century Gupta period in India. Since this time the precious metal has continued to be mined for a variety of kings around the world as well as governments today. The Roman empire were among the first to use hydraulic technology in order to extract gold from the earth at Las Medulas. During the time of the Romans gold was used as a primary medium of exchange in the empire and this precious metal has been a very strong motivator for the invasion of many countries around the world. In 1961 one of the biggest known gold deposits was discovered in the USA in the Carlin Trend in Nevada. Since the beginning of gold mining and the gold mining industry the total extraction of gold has exceeded 5 billion troy ounces and in Nevada the gold mining done accounts for about 3% of this number. This makes Nevada one of the primary regions for gold in the whole world and the number one in America.
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mining of gold in sudan

The northeastern African country of Sudan is the largest country in Africa and the Arab world, and the tenth largest in the world by area. More well known for civil conflict than resources, the country possesses significant mineral wealth within its territory including: petroleum , natural gas , uranium , tin , silver , manganese ,

zinc , iron , lead , copper , cobalt , nickel and gold. Last November, Sudan signed 10 agreements for gold and iron mining, as the African nation plans to more than double its gold output to 50 metric tonnes in the current year. Four of the agreements were signed with international companies including a Sudanese subsidiary of the Guernsey-based Toro Gold Ltd . and a division of Rika Global Impex Ltd ., based in Mumbai. The agreements grant the companies exploration rights in the states of Northern Kordofan, Al-Shamaliya, Nahr al-Nil and the Red Sea, which are all located in the north of the country. Sudan expects to sign 50 additional agreements in 2011 as it is experiencing "a rush" from foreign companies for gold exploration, including from Australia , Europe and the US, according to Sudan's Mining Minister, Abdel Baqi al-Jailani. Mr. al-Jailani said that "over 200,000 of Sudan's artisanal miners, who camp in arid land in search for gold, have produced 23 metric tonnes of gold between January and October."

How is gold mined?

Gold mining methods are divided into three basic categories: 1) placer mining. 2) hard rock mining. 3) byproduct mining . Each of these categories has it's own unique methods of extracting the gold from the surrounding materials 1 )placer mining: is the mining of alluvial deposits for minerals. This may be done by openpit (also called open-cast mining) or by various surface excavating equipment or tunneling equipment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placer_mining method of placer mining: A number of methods are used to mine placer gold

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panning. Sluice box. Trommel.

1-1 Panning Gold panning is mostly a manual technique of separating gold from other materials. Wide, shallow pans are filled with sand and gravel that may contain gold. The pan is submerged in water and shaken, sorting the gold from the gravel and other material. As gold is much denser than rock, it quickly settles to the bottom of the pan. The panning material is usually removed from stream beds, often at the inside turn in the stream, or from the bedrock shelf of the stream, where the density of gold allows it to concentrate, a type called placer deposits. Gold panning is the easiest technique for searching for gold, but is not commercially viable for extracting gold from large deposits, except where labor costs are very low or gold traces are substantial. Panning is often marketed as a tourist attraction on former gold fields. Before large production methods are used, a new source must be identified and panning is useful to identify placer gold deposits to be evaluated for commercial viability.

Gold Panning Procedure

STEP 1: Once you have located some gravel that you want to sample, place it in your gold pan-filling it about 3/4 of the way to the top. After you have been at it awhile, you can fill your pan to the top without losing any gold. While placing material in your pan, pick out the larger-sized rocks, so that you can get more of the smaller material and gold into the pan.

STEP 2: Choose a spot to do your panning. It is best to pick a location where the water is at least six inches deep and preferably flowing just enough to sweep away any silty water that may be washed from your pan. This way, you can see what you are doing better. You do not want the water moving so swiftly that it will upset your panning actions. A mild current will do, if available. STEP 3: Carry the pan over to your determined spot and submerge it underwater.

STEP 4: Use your fingers to knead the contents of the pan to break it up fully and

cause all of the material to become saturated with water. This is the time to work apart all the clay, dirt, roots, moss and such with your fingers to ensure that all the materials are fully broken up and in a liquid state of suspension whithin the pan. The pan should be underwater while doing this. Mud and silt will float up and out. Do not concern yourself about losing any gold when this happens. gold is heavy and will sink deeper in your pan while these lighter materials are floating out and away.

STEP 5: After the entire contents of the pan have been thoroughly broken up, take the pan in your hands (with cheater riffles on the far side of the pan) and shake it, using a vigorous left and right motion just under the surface of the water. This action will help to break up the contents of the pan even more and will also start to work the heavier materials downwards in the pan while the lighter materials will start to surface.

STEP 6: As the shaking action causes rocks to rise up to the surface, sweep them out of the pan using your fingers or the side of your hand. Just sweep off the top layer of rocks which have worked their way up to the pans surface.

STEP 7: Continue to do steps five and six, shaking the pan and sweeping out the rocks and pebbles(if present), until most of the medium-sized material is out of your pan. STEP 8: Tilt the forward edge of your pan downward slightly to bring the forward-bottom edge of the pan to a lower position. With the pan tilted forward, shake it back and forth using the same left and right motion.

This tilted shaking action causes the gold to start working its way down to the pans forward-bottom edge, and continues to work the lighter materials to the surface where they will be more easily swept off. STEP 9: Carefully, by using a forward and backward movement, or a slight circular motion just below the surface of the water, allow the water to sweep the top layer of worthless, lighter materials out of the pan. Only allow the water to sweep out a little at a time, while watching closely for the heavier materials to be uncovered as the lighter materials are swept out. It takes some judgment in this step to determine just how much material to sweep off before having to shake again so that no gold is lost.

STEP 10: Once the top layer of lighter material is washed out of your pan, reshake to bring more lighter materials to the top. By lighter materials, we mean in comparison to the other materials. If you continue to shake the lighter materials to the top and sweep them off, eventually you will be left with the heaviest material of all, which is the gold. It does not take much shaking to bring a new layer of lighter material to the surface. Maybe 5 or 6 seconds of shaking will do it, maybe less. It all depends upon the consistency of the material and how much gold is present. STEP 11: Every few cycles of sweeping and re-shaking, tilt your pan back to the level position and re-shake. This keeps any gold from being allowed to work its way up the forward-edge of your pan. STEP 12:Continue the above steps of sweeping and re-shaking until you are down to the heaviest materials in your pan. These usually consist of old pieces of lead and other metal Once down to the heaviest black sands in your pan, you can get a quick look at the concentrates to see how much gold is present by allowing about a half-cup of water into the pan, tilting the pan forward as before, and shaking from left to right to place the concentrates in the forward-bottom section of your pan. Then, level the pan off and swirl the water around in slow circles. This action will gradually uncover the concentrates, and you can get a look at any gold that is present. The amount of gold in your pan will give you an idea how rich the raw material is that you are sampling.

1-2 Sluice box The same principle of panning may be employed on a larger scale by constructing a short sluice box, with barriers along the bottom called riffles to trap the heavier gold particles as water washes them and the other material along the box. This method better suits excavation with shovels or similar implements to feed ore into the device. Sluice boxes can be as short as a few feet, or more than ten feet

The procedure of sluice box: Step 1: Getting Setting Up After you have located a promising l deposit of goldbearing gravel, walk along the stream bank and look for a place where you can set up your sluice box. You should search for a spot where the current is moving quite swiftly. Once you find such a place, set your sluice box directly in the current so that the box is filled with water almost to the top. You can often compensate by placing the sluice box so that the upper "input" end is slightly higher than the lower "discharge" end. If the sluice box is somewhat unstable in the current, position a few rocks around the outside of

the trough to brace it. Sometimes you will not even need the "rock brace," as the first few buckets of gravel placed into the sluice box will provide just enough stability to weigh it down.

Step 2: Feeding the Sluice Feed your gold-bearing gravel into the upper portion of the sluice box in carefully regulated amounts. The gravel must be fed at a pace that will not overload the riffles. The use of a 1/4 inch classifier screen to prescreen material before dumping into the sluice box can save much time and effort. The penalty for overloading your riffles often results in lost gold! Each time a new load of gravel is dumped into a sluice box with overloaded riffles, any gold in that gravel will wash right over the material that is clogging your riffles and out the discharge end of the box.

Step 3: Check the Sluice for Values It is a good idea to periodically check the sluice box for values that may have been recovered. The black rubber matting is designed to make a

quick inspection during the sluice operation. Gold can be spotted instantly on the black matting while the sluice is being fed. This helps to determine where the gold values may be the most plentiful.

Step 4: Tending the Sluice After dumping each load of gravel into the sluice box, check the riffle section for large waste rocks that may be lodged in the sluice. Flick these rocks out of the riffles with your fingers. When large rocks are allowed to rest in the riffle section they will cause the current to wash out all the concentrates from the immediate area of the rock. If a rock is lodged in the uppermost portion of the trough, the washed out concentrates will merely settle in the next few riffles down. But if the washout occurs at the lower end of the trough, the concentrate may flow out of the sluice box altogether. As one can see, it pays to keep an eye on those waste rocks! And one more thing, don't forget to shovel away the tailings which will periodically build up at the discharge end of the sluice box. If you don't the tailings will back up into the lower end of the sluice trough, burying some of your riffles.

Step 5: Performing the Cleanup When your riffles have accumulated black iron sand in amounts extending more than halfway downward to the next lower riffle, it is time to perform a cleanup. Carefully lift the sluice box from the current keeping it as level as possible. Now carry it over to the stream bank (watch your footing on those slippery rocks!) and set it down. Remove the sluice's riffle section and screen and set it aside, exercising care not to shake off any gravel adhering to it. Roll up the matting which lines the bottom of the sluice box trough and thoroughly rinse off all the concentrate. This should be done with the matting safely contained in a gold pan or deep bucket if possible. The use of a bucket may prevent any loss of all gold that could occur when attempting to rinse out the matting in a gold pan! Next, examine the empty sluice box trough. Gold has a tendency to work its way beneath the matting which often lies at the bottom of the trough. You may be surprised at the amount of "color" that can accumulate there. Check to see if there is any fine silt clinging to the bottom, rinse all of it into your concentrate bucket.

Finally, pick up the riffle section itself and rinse any adhering gravel into the concentrate bucket. The sluice box cannot be considered "cleaned" until each and every part has been thoroughly rinsed.

Step 6: Getting the Gold Out And now for the final step. The act of panning out your concentrates to get the gold. http://www.keeneeng.com/pamphlets/slucingForGold.html

1-3 Trommel

A trommel is composed of a slightly-inclined rotating metal tube (the 'scrubber section') with a screen at its discharge end. Lifter bars, sometimes in the form of bolted in angle iron, are attached to the interior of the scrubber section. The ore is fed into the elevated end of the trommel. Water, often under pressure, is provided to the scrubber and screen sections and the combination of water and mechanical action frees the valuable minerals from the ore. The mineral bearing ore that passes through the screen is then further concentrated in smaller devices such as sluices and jigs. The larger pieces of ore that do not pass through the screen can be carried to a waste stack by a conveyor How does the trommel work? Material is placed into the hopper, where the first spray zone washes the material before it enters the rotating drum. The second spray zone, inside therotating drum, washes the material as it tumbles. Thethird spray zone,

outside the rotating drum, keeps thedrum clean and helps wash the material. This unique design ensures the material is washed frommultiple angles as the drum rotates, allowing a five gallon bucket of material to be processed in 2-3 minutes. As the material is washed and tumbled, the smaller pieces and dirt fall through the drums heavy steelscreen into the funnel assembly. From there they aredirected into the top end of the sluice where the gold isseparated.The larger material still in the rotating drum, istumbled and washed for the entire length of the drumand dropped out the end onto the trough. http://www.miningprocess.net/application/zeniths-gold-mining-trommel.html