hydraulicking
Quick Summary
Hydraulic mining, also known as hydraulicking, is a mining technique that uses powerful jets of water to dislodge minerals from unconsolidated materials like placer deposits, alluvium, and laterites. It can also be used on consolidated materials such as sandstones, coal, and hard rock.1
The process involves using a large water cannon, called a giant or monitor, to break up the material and suspend it in a slurry. This slurry is then moved through a process called sluicing. In gold mining, the gold settles behind baffles in sluices while lighter waste material is washed away. For coal mining, the water breaks the coal from the seam and washes it to a collection point.1
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placer miningIn sluicing or hydraulicking methods, a slightly sloping wooden trough called a box sluice, or a ditch cut in hard gravel or rock called a ground sluice, is used as a channel along which gold-bearing gravel is carried by a stream of water. Riffles placed transversely along the…
Read MoreIn sluicing or hydraulicking methods, a slightly sloping wooden trough called a box sluice, or a ditch cut in hard gravel or rock called a ground sluice, is used as a channel along which gold-bearing gravel is carried by a stream of water. Riffles placed transversely along the…
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miningMechanized methodsIn a method known as hydraulicking, in-place material is excavated by moving a stream of high-pressure water through a nozzle over the mining face. The resulting slurry then moves into a downgrade channel and into a contained circuit for concentrating. Although hydraulic mining is sometimes used to mine coal underground,…
Read MoreIn a method known as hydraulicking, in-place material is excavated by moving a stream of high-pressure water through a nozzle over the mining face. The resulting slurry then moves into a downgrade channel and into a contained circuit for concentrating. Although hydraulic mining is sometimes used to mine coal underground,…
Read More