Geology

GEOLOGY

Subject : GEOLOGY
(For under graduate student.)

Paper No. : Paper – 08

Energy Resources and
Mineral Explorations

Topic No. & Title : 243

Alluvial Mining Methods

Academic Script

1. Introduction
Alluvium refers to sediment that is transported and deposited by water. Alluvium
is found in rivers, lakes and along coastlines. In the case of alluvium transported
by ancient stream, alluvium can also be found in a terrestrial environment. The
alluvial process can transport, and concentrate, valuable minerals. Over
thousands of years, minerals are eroded from their source and transported by
water to a new locale. Because sediments settle out of water according to their
weight, heavier, valuable minerals such as diamonds, platinum group minerals,
and gold will often deposit at the same time, this characteristic can lead to a
concentrated deposit of valuable minerals, prime for extraction. Alluvial mining is
an ancient technology. The early gold-panners were alluvial miners. Although
small scale alluvial mining operations are still common, Alluvial mining has also
tranformed into a big business involving cutting edge technology and a great deal
of capital investment. Alluvial mining is the process of digging and shifting mud,
sand and gravel using shovels, sieves or even bare hands. This process mainly
includes the extraction of minerals like diamond, gold etc. Typically diamonds
come from geologic rock formations called Kimberlites. Kimberlite rock
formations that contain diamonds are eroded over a time by rivers and streams
and are deposited in the sediments. These deposits are called alluvial diamond
deposits. In the case of alluvial deposits that are cut-off from their water source,
mining is simple. The resource can be extracted through a conventional open-pit.
If the deposit is still covered by water, the mining process is a bit more complex. If
the water is shallow, such as lake or adjacent a coast-line; a wall may be built and
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pumps used to pump out water. The overburden is removed, and then the deposit
is excavated and transported for screening. Dredging is used to remove
overburden in areas with very wet ground conditions. The dredge is floated in an
initial pond and then moved into the mining block where it excavates down to the
mineral bearing material. Heavy stable minerals weathered from rocks are
deposited in stream beds to form stream placer deposits or alluvial deposits or
alluvial placer deposits. They may be carried away & accumulated in the beaches
to form Beach Placer where mechanical sorting action of water flow tends to layer
them below the fine sand & gravel.
Generally only the heavier minerals will be sorted & left. For example minerals’
having their specific gravity are as follows:

Gold [15-19], Platinum [14-22], cassiterite [6.6-7.1], Diamond [3.2-3.52], Garnet [3.5-
4.3], Monazite [4.9-5.3], Magnetite [5.6-5.18], Zircon [4.2-4.7, Rutile [4.2], Illmenite
[4.5-5]m, Silica [2.6].

2. Different methods of Alluvial Mining Alluvial mining methods include the

following processes namely,
a. Panning with Pan & Batea
b. Panning with Rocker
c. Paving with Long tom
d. Sluicing – generally ground sluicing
e. Hydraulic using giants or monitors
f. Drift mining
g. Dredging and
h. Derricks and Cable way.

Panning with Pan and Batea: This is a manual mining method, where picks and
shovels are used in excavating sands, sandy clay etc. Pans of various shapes & sizes
are employed in recovering the valuable minerals. For normal wok the pan used in
about 10 inches wide at the top and 3 inches deep with sloping sides. The soft alluvial
material dug up, is placed in the pan or Batea & washed; this process is called
“Panning”.

Panning with Rocker: The rocker consists of a metal screen mounted at the bottom
of the strong wooden box. The box is made to stand on two semicircular Iron hoops.
A handle is fitted to one side of the box. The alluvial material is poured on the metal
screen [1/4 to ½ inch] together with water, and with the help of the handle the
rocker is rocked from side to side. During this process as the rocker rolls on the
semicircular iron hoops, the finer portion of the alluvium, containing values, passes
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through the screen, along with the water & gets into a riffle box. The lighter fractions
flows over the riffles, while the heavier fraction in retained by the riffles, from where
it is collected later on. The gold is separated from magnetic materials contained in
the heavies by magnetic separation.

Long Tom: Long tom consist of an open box 10ft to 12 ft long, from 15 to 20 inch
wide at the upper end & nearly double this is fitted. The slope given is 1 in 12. The
finer material passing through the screen falls on to a riffle box. Here the separation
of heavies is affected. This equipment is also used where manual excavation of soil or
alluvial materials is carried out.

Sluicing-Ground Sluicing: Water from flowing stream or river is diverted into the area
occupied by the alluvial deposit through a channel and men standing on the bench
banks of the channel. The placer material obtained from shoveling is put into the
sluice and riffle boxes which are placed in the bank from where concentrate is
recovered. Using a sluice box to extract gold from placer deposits has been a
common practice in prospecting and small-scale mining throughout history to the
modern day mining. A sluice box is essentially a man-made channel with riffles set in
the bottom. The riffles are designed to create dead zones in the current to allow gold
to drop out of suspension. The box is placed in the stream to catch water-flow and
gold bearing material is placed at the top of the box. The material is carried by water
through the box where gold and other material which are there get settled in the
riffles boxes. Larger commercial placer mining operations employ screening plants or
trammels to remove the larger alluvial materials such as boulders and gravel before
concentrating in a sluice box or jig plant. These operations typically include diesel
powered earth moving equipment including excavators, dozers, wheel loaders and
rock trucks. The conditions which are favourable for ground sluicing are as follows:
• Shallow depth of the deposit (6ft – 8ft)
• Sufficient gradiance facilitating the transport of placers. (5-10 m/Km)
• Copious supply of water
• Facilities for disposal of tailings accumulated due to fall of gradient
• The gravel should not be more than 3-3.5 m deep.

Hydraulicking: Hydraulic mining uses a power jet of water which removes the
unwanted material from the gravels. This was used in the 1800s to find gold after
placer mining had already been used. Miners make channels where water under
pressure could be sprayed on the rock or gravel hillsides. The water pressure broke
down the rock and washed large hunks of it downhill. The miners used this method
to find the gold in a quicker way than panning, so they used sluices. The water is sent

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down sluices where the gold, rocks and gravel dropped to the bottom. The gold is
separated from the rock and gravel. Principal problems encountered in this methods:
• Adequate water supply under pressure.
• Suitable sluice grades
• Availability of room for dumping waste materials

Drift Mining: This is more expensive than either sluicing or hydraulic king. It is
employed in the exploitation of placers occurring underground at depths. Such as
buried beach placers and ancient river channels. Fore poling is employed in
advancing the workings in the deposits. These main entries in most cases are vertical
shafts.

Dredging: Dredging method is essentially employed for mining placers particularly

tin, as in Malaysia. The dredge is large flat bottomed barge or pontoon. These
dredges are provided with a chain of large shallow buckets, which is lowered bring up
the soil from the pond. The bucket is carried up by a Persian wheel. The buckets can
be attached to a mart. This form of dredge is advantageous in clayey soil as digging is
not difficult. Head lines or stay wires are used, instead of spuds to keep the dredge
anchored. Sometimes mechanical harrows, delivering 60 strokes per minute are
employed for loosening the mud. Some dredges are fitted with classifiers & jigs for
recovering values. Tromel or revolving screen, feeds into a classifier, where final
concentration goes from the trammel to a Jig. The different types of dredging are:
• Resoiling dredge
• Frozen ground dredge
• Centrifugal pump dredge

Derricks and cable way: The Derrick in common use consists of stout wooden mast,
which can be used to lift loads, by mean of a rope & pulley arrangement. At times,
this can be improved by attaching an inclined member, which can more round the
vertical mast, as well as move up & down. By this arrangement loads can be moved
outwards, from the mast as center as well as concentrically. The cable way comprises
two masts, the tops of which are connected by a tight cable. A pulley arrangement is
mounted on this rope & this can run on the cable from one mast to the other. The
pulley can be used for lifting the loads, while the wire rope (cable) is used for moving
the loads outwards. The derrick and cable way are used in open cast methods, for
winning clays etc or for removing clays overburden, from the excavation to the
surface for storage or dumping.

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3. Alluvial Mining for Diamonds and Gold Diamonds are a popular resource
extracted through alluvial mining. Particularly prevalent in Africa, around 10 percent
of the world’s rough diamonds are sourced through industrial alluvial mining and 14
percent through artisanal or small-scale informal alluvial diamond digging. On the
industrial scale, when diamonds are found on the ocean shore or riverbeds, the
gravel is removed and then taken to a plant where it is washed and screened for
diamonds. For offshore operations, specially constructed ships suck the gravel from
the ocean floor before it is transported to land and to plants for screening. Formal
alluvial diamond mining mainly takes place in Angola, Namibia and South Africa.
Mining kimberllite pipe requires a more advanced degree of mining technology and is
more expensive. The first step in mining a kimberlite pipe is to dig the pit. In "open-
pit" or "open-cast" mining, the layers of rock are dug up and eventually tunnels and
pipe are build so the hard ore material can be removed with large hydraulic shovels
and trucks. The hard rock is broken into pieces with shovels and other methods until
the rock is small enough to be remove from the mine by truck. When the kimberlite
ore is deep underground it must be removed by mining a series of underground
shafts in the pipe that allow the ore to be carved off and make its way down the
tunnel to a draw point. At these points the crushed ore is brought up to the surface
for processing. Only about 20% of the world's diamonds are taken from pipe mines,
and the remaining 80% of diamonds are alluvial.

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Alluvial mining for Gold Alluvial gold is commonly found mixed with loose sediments
due to its high density. Over the years, a variety of techniques have been utilized to
separate the gold from the gravel, however, all of these methods rely on the same
basic principle, water washing of the gold-bearing gravel etc. Alluvial gold is
commonly cemented and in these cases, extraction is a bit more complex. Drilling
and blasting is employed to remove the worthless overburden. Although
unconsolidated sediments are much easier to extract, the gold concentrations in
these deposits.

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4. Alluvial Mining for Platinum

Alluvial platinum mining was first used in the Urals, back in 1823. By the end of the
19th century the alluvial deposits of the central Urals had become the world’s
dominant source of platinum. The most easily accessible high-grade placer deposits,
however, had largely been exhausted by the end of the 1920’s. Nevertheless, the
Urals are currently receiving some renewed interest. Using present-day technology
explorers are examining presence platinum with the help of alluvial platinum. It is
possible that a great deal of platinum, that was too fine grained to still present in the
region. Furthermore, the possibility remains for undiscovered sediments that were
buried too deep to be found with 1920’s technology. Alluvial mining is alive and well
in the Far East of Russia. Platinum group metals are currently mined from river
sediments. First, bulldozers scrape out the bottom of the riverbed. The material is
then made into a sluice by using hydraulic guns to break up and wash the ore. This
causes the heavier particles to fall through a mesh into collectors. Then further
washing is completed in stages to separate out the precious metal grains. These are
collected and are passed through a final gravity concentration stage and a shaking
table to separate PGM and gold concentrates. This region is known to host some very
large platinum grains. The largest nugget discovered to date weighed 3.522 kg.
Around three tones of platinum per year have been extracted from this region since
1990. It is thought that production in the range of three or four tones per year is
sustainable for some years to come.

5. Alluvial Mining in different countries around the World Today, diamonds are
mined in about 25 countries, on every continent but Europe and Antarctica. Although
most diamond mining is accomplished by large companies, in many developing
countries, diamonds and other minerals are extracted by small- scale miners working
in the informal sector. These small-scale miners often use simple artisanal mining
techniques in alluvial deposits. The process of alluvial diamond mining involves
digging and lifting through mud, sand and gravel using shovels, sieves, or even bare
hands. Typically, diamonds come from geologic rock formations called Kimberlites.
Kimberlite rock formations that contain diamonds are eroded over time by rivers and
streams and can deposit diamonds in the sediments carried out from these original
source rocks. These deposits are called alluvial diamond deposits. The locations of
these alluvial diamond deposits are controlled by the surrounding topography,
drainage patterns, and the location of the Kimberlites. Alluvial deposits are often
mined and exploited by small-scale miners using artisanal mining techniques.
Artisanal mining techniques result in working with simple tools and equipment,
usually in the informal sector, and outside the legal and regulatory framework.
Artisanal operations are characterized by low productivity, lack of safety measures
and high environmental impact. As a result, the majorities of the artisanal miners are
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very poor, exploit marginal deposits with minimal returns, and are exposed to harsh
and often dangerous conditions .
Artisanal and small-scale mining occurs primarily in rural areas where it represents
the most promising, if not the only, income opportunity available. However, the
mining activities are often viewed negatively by governments, large companies, and
environmentalists. The use of child labor, the potential for environmental
degradation etc. Further, the potential use of ASM revenue to finance conflicts and
insurgencies in host countries or even regional scale conflicts.

6. Conclusion The alluvial mining method is cheaper, easier and low cast mining
method of extracting placer deposits compared to other mining methods. This
method has a greater safety and provides better working conditions in respect to
light and air. Diamonds are the pure form of carbon in a transparent state that is
formed below the surface of the Earth. Over 150 Kilometers below the Earth’s
surface in the mantle, diamonds are formed. The diamonds make their way up the
surface captured within liquid hot rock or magma. Once they reach the surface
diamonds can be found in volcanic pipes called kimberlite pipes or in loose mineral
deposits called alluvial deposits. Alluvial mining is employed in coarse unconsolidated
deposits such as alluvial gravels or mineral sands.