![]() ![]() They were employed by the Spanish in the New World, and by miners in Georgia and North Carolina in the 1820s and 1830s. The placer mining methods used in California had been known for centuries. As the years passed, more elaborate methods of placer mining (river mining with dams and water-driven pumps, ditch-fed sluicing systems, booming and other nascent versions of hydraulicking, and sinking drifts into ancient gravels) gradually replaced the miner with his pick and pan. Typical mining equipment during the period included cradles, long toms, sluice boxes, and hand-held equipment (pans, picks, shovels, etc.). ![]() During the Gold Rush period, placer mining was heavily dependant on manual labor and the use of water, so its mining sites are typically found along streams, in river canyons, or in tributary canyons. Because this process was associated with erosion caused by water flow, gold found through “placering” was located in streambeds or in deposits left in ancient streambeds. Placer mining refers to mining for gold that nature has freed from its associated rock and left in the form of nuggets, flakes, grains, or dust. It was not until hard rock or deep mining spread that other metals, along with gold, were mined. The Gold Rush period was dominated by placer mining for gold. A placer miner prospecting for gold with a cradle.
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