Sluicing

sluicing [′slüs·iŋ]

(mining engineering)

Washing auriferous earth through sluices provided with riffles and other gold-saving appliances.

Separation of minerals in a flowing stream of water.

Moving earth, sand, gravel, or other rock or mineral materials by flowing water.

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Sluicing 

a process of primitive mining of alluvial deposits in which they are washed by a free-flowing stream of water released along a trench that cuts through a deposit. Washing through and gradually deepening the trench, the water carries away the lighter, valueless rock. The heavier minerals, which are to be mined, settle to the bottom of the trench and are then extracted by means of a washing drum and pans. Sluicing was the most highly productive means of mining gold-bearing placers at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century. The perfecting of the method of sluicing of ore in the 1830’s in the Urals laid the basis for the hydraulic process of mining deposits. In the USSR, sluicing has everywhere been replaced by mechanized mining processes, including the use of an excavator, a bulldozer, or a scraper and hydraulic and dredging equipment.

REFERENCE

Shorokhov, S. M. Razrabotka rossypnykh mestorozhdenii i osnovy proektirovaniia. Moscow, 1963.

V. A. BOIARSKII