How did they seperate tiny flakes of gold from the sand during the gold rushes?

Question

I know it has to do with these small "plate" things with holes that they swirled around the sand and gold in, but wouldn't the gold fall through just like the sand? Did the tiny flakes of gold float because they were so small?

Answer 1

Gold pans look like pie pans. The gold is heavy and sinks to the bottom while you swirl the water around washing the dirt off from above the gold. The also used sluices. long trough with water running through them. the sluice had riffles in the bottom. Riffles were like little ridges or bars that the gold would sink to and be held by while the running water again washed the lighter dirts away. The trick is to wash hard enough to get rid if the dirt but not hard enough to wash away the heavy stuff like Gold or platinum. Gold is about ten times heavier than lead.

Answer 2

The basic method of separating gold flakes from other particulates is by "panning", as in "panning for gold". It takes advantage of the fact gold is considerably denser than most particulates, even other metal flakes (which are already kind of rare in nature). When you shake or swirl a mixture of sand and gold flakes, aided with water, the gold flakes will settle right at the bottom, and with a little technique, the sand over it can be brushed or washed off it, exposing the gold flakes.

More complicated machinery used for this sorting still use the same principle.

Gold is not "10 times as dense" as lead, but not quite twice as dense as lead.

Answer 3

Mike;
Everyone above is generally correct but once you have gotten rid of most of the rocks and sediment you still have to pick out the gold. For this the miners used mercury.They'd put a drop of mercury in the pan and the gold would be drawn to it. The term is gold and mercury have an "affinity" for each other. The next part is where it got dangerous. Then they would put the mercury containing gold in a pan over a fire and boil away the mercury, leaving only the gold. But sadly the mercury fumes are very toxic and the miners either died or went nuts.
There's a term that you don't hear much any more,(Mad Hatter).
People who made hats long ago used mercury to shape the hats and guess what happened to them?
Hope this helps.

Answer 4

The melting point of gold isn't very high. It's not much higher than lead. All they had to do is put it in a pan/skillet and put it over an open fire. Melted gold won't stick to other materials so it will separate and run to the other side of the pan.


Sorry I re-read the question.

I've paned for gold once. The gold is heavier than the dirt and sand in the pan and when you swish it around, the dirt and sand is slopped out of the pan leaving the heavies gold in the bottom.

Answer 5

The "plates" you refer to were actually called pans and they did not have holes in them. You are correct that the gold fell to the botom of the pan. The purpose of gently swirling the pan was to let the lighter sand and dirt particles wash over the edge of the pan. The gold was spotted by seeing it in in the bottom of the pan which required a sharp eye since raw gold is seldom bright but actually a dull yellow color until it is polished. Gold is also a soft metal which could be bit into or hammered flat.

Answer 6

They used two methods, using the pan method, they would scoop up some sand and small stones from the creek and work the sand around the pan in water. The sand and stones would be washed out of the pan and the heavier gold flakes would remain. Using a sluice, which was constructed of wood and consisted of a series of small steps, the prospector. would shovel creek gravel and sand into the sluice and he would use the creek current to wash out the gravel and sand with the gold flakes and nuggets remaining in the sluice.