Mining technique using high-pressure water jets to carve away minerals
A miner using a hydraulic jet to mine for gold in California, from The Century Magazine January 1883
Hydraulic mining is a form of mining that uses high-pressure jets of water to dislodge rock material or move sediment.[1] In the placer mining of gold or tin, the resulting water-sediment slurry is directed through sluice boxes to remove the gold. It is also used in mining kaolin and coal.
Hydraulic mining developed from ancient Roman techniques that used water to excavate soft underground deposits. Its modern form, using pressurized water jets produced by a nozzle called a "monitor", came about in the 1850s during the California Gold Rush in the United States. Though successful in extracting gold-rich minerals, the widespread use of the process resulted in extensive environmental damage, such as increased flooding and erosion, and sediment blocking waterways and covering farm fields. These problems led to its legal regulation. Hydraulic mining has been used in various forms around the world.
^Paul W. Thrush, A Dictionary of Mining, Mineral, and Related Terms, US Bureau of Mines, 1968, p.560.
Hydraulicmining is a form of mining that uses high-pressure jets of water to dislodge rock material or move sediment. In the placer mining of gold or...
separate the precious material from the deposit, a method known as hydraulicmining, hydraulic sluicing or hydraulicking. The word placer derives from the Spanish...
different hydraulic applications were developed, including public water supplies, innumerable aqueducts, power using watermills and hydraulicmining. They...
of large volumes of water brought to the minehead by aqueducts for hydraulicmining. The exposed rock was then attacked by fire-setting, where fires were...
Hydraulic engineering as a sub-discipline of civil engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water and sewage. One...
Mining in ancient Rome utilized hydraulicmining and shaft mining techniques in combination with equipment such as the Archimedes screw. The materials...
especially in Ireland and Spain. Romans employed slave labour and used hydraulicmining methods, such as hushing and ground sluicing on a large scale to extract...
businessman and entrepreneur, notable for his contribution to developing hydraulicmining and for building water systems, especially in the Bay Area, so much...
alluvial tin deposits, and is known as hydraulicmining. A smaller scale version of the same method is placer mining, and both may have been used to work...
debris, called hydraulicmining, as well as washing comminuted, or crushed, ores and driving simple machinery. The Romans used hydraulicmining methods on...
mill pond. Other common uses for leats include delivery of water for hydraulicmining and mineral concentration, for irrigation, to serve a dye works or...
industry, known as a log flume. They were also extensively used in hydraulicmining and working placer deposits for gold, tin and other heavy minerals...
employed high pressure hydraulicmining methods which washed down whole hillsides and ate up the gulch floor. The hydraulicmining process left huge spoil...
on Bodmin Moor, for example, where there are extensive traces of a hydraulicmining method known as streaming. The current major tin production comes from...
Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, fracing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of...
1853, hydraulicmining was used on ancient gold-bearing gravel beds on hillsides and bluffs in the goldfields. In a modern style of hydraulicmining first...
were also skilled in mining, building aqueducts needed to supply equipment used in extracting metal ores, e.g. hydraulicmining, and the building of reservoirs...
locations. Hydraulicmining was used on ancient gold-bearing gravel beds on hillsides and bluffs in the gold fields.: 89 In hydraulicmining, a high-pressure...
Malakoff Diggins, the largest hydraulicmining site in California, United States. The mine was one of several hydraulicmining sites at the center of the...
large-scale industrial hydraulicmining left a much greater impact. About 25 million cubic yards (19,400,000 m3) of hydraulicmining debris was carried down...
1853, hydraulicmining was used on ancient gold-bearing gravel beds on hillsides and bluffs in the goldfields. In a modern style of hydraulicmining first...
the fact that they are always under the hydraulic roof supports when they are extracting coal. Longwall mining has traditionally been a manual process...
Hardrock mining (in California called quartz mining) began in 1849, and placer mining by hydraulicmining began in 1852. Despite the new mining methods...
but died out by 1853. Malakoff Diggings was known for its booming hydraulicmining. Placer County – Colfax was known for a main station for supplies from...
one billion cubic yards (760×10^6 m3) of river sediment and lesser hydraulicmining debris was dredged to produce an estimated 5.14 million ounces (146×10^6 g)...
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