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PLACERS AND PLACER MINING

Technical Report · April 2017

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A. Balasubramanian
University of Mysore
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Prof. A. Balasubramanian
Centre for Advanced Studies in Earth Science,
University of Mysore, Mysore

Objective:

The term "Placer" means a deposit of loosely distributed gravel which contains precious metals like
gold or other heavy minerals. The word placer was derived from the Spanish word meaning "sand
bank." Placer mining is a special open cut method for exploiting deposits of sand or gravel containing
workable amounts of such valuable minerals. Native gold is the most important placer mineral, but
platinum and tin are also found in gravels. Minerals also include zircon, diamond, ruby, and other
gems. The objective of this lesson is to highlight the details of placer minerals, their characteristics
and their mining methods.

1.0 Introduction:

A Russian engineer in 1800 made the first reported discovery of placer gold in Alaska. Placer
deposits are concentrations of heavy minerals that form when minerals are washed, by weather or
flooding, down slope into streams. The minerals settle in areas where the river current stalls and can
no longer contain the minerals. Mining has historically been a cash-based activity. Placer mining is a
collection of mining methods that use water to separate valuable ore from the surrounding
sediment. Placer mining takes advantage of a mineral's high density, which causes it to sink more
rapidly from moving water than the lighter materials it is found in. Placer mining is one of the
ancient methods of mining. In this method, water is used to excavate, transport, concentrate, and
recover heavy minerals from alluvial or placer deposits. Placers supplied most of the gold for a hefty
portion of the prehistoric world. Hydraulic mining techniques were used initially to segregate gold
type of precious metals and minerals.

1.2 Mineral commodities

A placer is a valuable mineral which is relatively heavy and is resistant to weathering and abrasion.
Release of the valuable mineral from its parent rock. Concentration of the valuable mineral into
workable deposits. This step usually involves water transport. Technically a placer deposit is the
general term for a mineral deposit formed by the concentration of moving particles by gravity. The
mineral commodities commonly mined in placer deposits include:
 precious metals: gold, platinum, silver (notably in Alaska, western USA, Australia)
 precious and semi-precious stones: diamonds, rubies (South Africa, Congo, Myanmar)
 heavy mineral sands: iron (New Zealand, Indonesia), titanium, thorium and uranium (Urals,
Russia) rare earth elements, niobium, tantalum (China).

The exploration of placers is a problem involving nearly all phases of the science of geology,
especially physiography and stream sedimentation.

2.0 Classification of Placers:

A systematic geological study of placers calls for an orderly classification dividing them into
genetic types, which indicate how they were first formed. The following classification is based upon
the fundamental conditions of deposition:
1. Residual placers.
2. Eluvial placers.
3. Stream placers.
4. Bench placers.

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5. Flood gold deposits.
6. Desert placers.
7. Tertiary gravels.
8. Miscellaneous types.
a) Beach Placers.
b) Glacial Deposits.
c) Eolian Placers.

2.1 Residual Placers:

A residual placer is, in effect, a concentration of precious metals or minerals (or other heavy
mineral) at or near its point of release from the parent rock. In this type of placer the enrichment
results from the elimination of valueless material rather than from concentration of values brought in
from an outside source.

2.2 Eluvial Placers:

Eluvial placers usually represent a transitional stage between a residual placer and a stream placer.
Where one type merges into another, they cannot be clearly distinguished. They are characteristically
found in the form of irregular sheets of surface detritus and soil mantling a hillside below a vein or
other source of valuable mineral.

2.3 Stream Placers:

Stream placers are the most widespread type in the whole world. These are the types most frequently
encountered in mineral explorations. They can be conveniently divided into:
a. Gulch placers.
b. Creek placers.
c. River deposits.
d. Gravel-plain deposits.

a. Gulch placers :

Gulch placers are characteristically small in area, have steep gradients and are usually confined to
minor drainages in which a permanent stream may or may not exist. This type of placer is, as a rule,
made up of a mixture of poorly sorted gravel and detritus from adjacent hillsides. Because of steep
gradient, the gravel accumulations are often thin and discontinuous. Boulders are commonly found in
quantities that preclude all but simple hand mining operations. The gold is likely to be coarse and
well-concentrated on bedrock.

b. Creek placers :

In many districts creek placers have been important sources of gold but like the gulch placers most
were carefully prospected by the early miners and worked out, where worthwhile to do so. Many of
the lower-grade remnants left by the early hand miners have since been exploited by some form of
mechanized mining, notably by dragline dredges during the depression years of the 1930’s.

c. River deposits :

River deposits are represented by the more extensive gravel flats in or adjacent to the beds of present-
day rivers and as a class, they have been our most important source of placer minerals. They are
generally similar to creek placers but the gold is usually finer, the gravel well-rounded and large
boulders fewer or absent. Deposits by streams include those of both present and ancient times,

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whether they form well-defined channels or are left merely as benches. Stream placers consist of
sands and gravels sorted by the action of running water.

2.4 Gravel-plain deposits :

These are somewhat difficult to define as they may grade from river or bench deposits, into flood-
plain or delta-type deposits and they can be geologically old, or recent. Gravel plains are found where
a river canyon flattens and widens or, more often, where it enters a wide, low-gradient valley. The
contained placers are generally similar to those in river deposits except for greater size and a more
general distribution of gold

2.5 Bench Placers

Bench placers have all the characteristics of modern stream placers, but their bedrock floor is higher
than the present bed of the stream. Gravel terraces are wide flat gravel deposits, whose surfaces are
considerably above the high-water level of the stream and whose bedrock floors are only slightly, if at
all, higher than the stream bed. These high gravels are sometimes called "bar" deposits.

Bench placers are usually remnants of deposits formed during an earlier stage of stream development
and left behind as the stream cuts downward. The abandoned segments, particularly those on the
hillsides, are commonly referred to as “bench” gravels. Frequently there are two or more sets of
benches in which case the miners refer to them as “high” benches and “low” benches.

2.6 Flood Gold Deposits

As a rule, finely-divided gold travels long distances under flood conditions. This gold which can best
be referred to by the miners’ term of “flood gold”, consists mostly of minute particles.

2.7 Desert Placers

Desert placers in the Southwest occur under widely varying conditions but taken as a whole, they are
so different from normal stream placers as to deserve a special classification. When dealing with the
usual desert placer the mineral examiner must learn to disregard some of the rules of stream
deposition, or at least, he must learn to apply them with caution. Desert placers are found in arid
regions where erosion and transportation of debris depends largely on fast -rising streams that rush
down gullies and dry washes following summer cloudbursts.

3.0 Miscellaneous types:

3.1 Beach placers:

Sea-beach deposits of the modern type are virtually all re-sorted; they have been formed by wave
action which erodes adjacent alluvial deposits and concentrates their gold contents in places along
the beach. Beach placers may form where gold-bearing material is carried into the ocean by streams,
or along the wave-cut base of a gold-bearing coastal plain. The heavy minerals consist for the most
part of magnetite, chromite, ilmenite, monazite, and zircon, with occasional fine particles of gold and
platinum. Beach placers are of two kinds, (a) present beaches and (b) ancient beaches.

Beach placers can be subdivided into two categories - modern and fossil. They are formed by the
winnowing action of waves, undertow and alongshore currents along present and past shorelines
bordering lakes, seas and oceans where a source of primary gold has been available for concentration.

3.2 Glacial deposits:

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The mineral examiner may seldom encounter a placer directly associated with glacial deposits but, on
the other hand, it is not unusual for a miner to assert that a particular deposit, particularly if its origin
is obscure, is a “glacier” placer.

3.3 Eolian placers:

In desert regions the wind may act as an agent of concentration by blowing sand and the lighter rock
particles away from a body of low-value material and leaving an enriched surface veneer containing
gold or other heavy minerals in a somewhat concentrated state. There have been many cases where
wind-caused surface enrichments supported the activities of itinerant miners using hand tools and
simple dry washers.

3.4 A Bajada Placer:

A bajada is a confluent alluvial fan along the base of a mountain range. Most of all bajada placer
gravels are Quaternary and the larger part are Recent age. The genesis of a bajada placer is basically
similar to that of a stream placer except as it is conditioned by the climate and topography of the arid
region in which the placer occurs.

4.0 Methods of Placer Mining:

Placer mining is the mining of stream bed (alluvial) deposits of economic minerals. This may be
done by open-pit (also called open-cast mining) or by various surface excavating equipment or by
using tunnelling equipment. Placer mining is frequently used for precious metal deposits (particularly
gold) and gemstones, both of which are often found in alluvial deposits—deposits of sand and gravel
in modern or ancient stream beds, or occasionally glacial deposits.

Placer mining is a special opencut method for exploiting deposits of sand or gravel containing
workable amounts of valuable minerals. Native gold is the most important placer mineral, but
platinum and tin are also found in gravels. Minerals also include zircon, diamond, ruby, and other
gems. The first publication of the Arizona Bureau of Mines on Arizona Gold Placers was written by
M. A. Allen and appeared in 1922 as Bulletin 118. A number of methods are used to mine placers,
both in terms of extracting the minerals from the ground, and separating it from the minerals.

4.1 Mining By Hand:

Manual Mining methods, such as ground sluicing and booming, followed by shoveling in, are
suitable where small isolated areas are to be mined with a minimum outlay of capital. Such methods,
rapidly passing in most of the districts, will always be popular with many miners who are content
with small returns, or a bare livelihood. Drift mining is rapidly declining but is generally the
only method practicable for mining deep channel deposits where the gravel is frozen and the main
gold content is concentrated in a comparatively thin stratum. usually at bedrock.
4.2 Panning
Panning is a very simple process, and with a little practice, anyone can pan efficiently. Panning is
basically the shaking of heavy particles to the bottom, then washing off the lighter particles from the
top. Panning is the simplest technique to extract gold from placer ore is panning. In panning, some
mined ore is placed in a large metal or plastic pan, combined with a generous amount of water, and
agitated so that the gold particles, being of higher density than the other material, settle to the bottom
of the pan. The lighter gangue material such as sand, mud and gravel are then washed over the side of
the pan, leaving the gold behind. Once a placer deposit is located by gold panning, the miner usually
shifts to equipment that can treat volumes of sand and gravel more quickly and efficiently.
4.3 A trommel

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 A trommel is composed of a faintly leaning rotating metal tube (the 'scrubber section') with a screen
at its release end. Lifter bars, at times in the form of bolted in angle iron, are affixed to the interior of
the scrubber part. The ore is fed into the high end of the trommel. Water (frequently under pressure) is
given to the scrubber and screen parts and the mixture of water and mechanical action frees the
precious minerals from the ore. The mineral consisting ore that passes throughout the screen is then
more concentrated in smaller devices like sluices and jigs. The bigger pieces of ore that do not pass
throughout the screen can be carried to a waste stack by a conveyor.

4.4 Pre-stripping:

Pre-stripping is a process found in open pit and strip mines. The process involves the removal of top
soil or earth to expose a coal or ore deposit for later mining. The actual ore may not be removed until
the next year after the covering layer of earth is removed or stripped away.

4.5 Stripping and Trenching:

In a modern placer mining operation, stripping and trenching are the principal means by which ground
overlying the gold-bearing deposits are removed, and the sediments containing placer gold are
recovered for sluicing. The removal of vegetation and sediment layers will impact substantially both
above ground and buried (archaeological and palaeontological) heritage resources.

4.6 Rocker:

A rocker box (or "cradle") is capable of greater volume than a gold pan, and it is more portable and
requires less infrastructure than a sluice box, being fed not by a sluice but by hand. The box sits on
rockers, which when rocked separates out the gold, and the practice was referred to as "rocking the
golden baby".

4.7 Hydraulic mining:

Generally used for weakly cemented near-surface ore deposits. Hydraulic mining of a placer gold
deposit. Hydraulic king utilizes a high-pressure stream of water that is directed against the mineral
deposit (normally but not always a placer), under-cutting it, and causing its removal by the erosive
actions of the water.

4.8 Dredging mining:

Generally used most often for mineral-sands and some near-shore alluvial diamond mining
operations. Dredging performed from floating vessels, accomplishes the extraction of the minerals
mechanically or hydraulically. "Dredging" is a method often used to bring up underwater mineral
deposits. Although dredging is usually employed to clear or enlarge waterways for boats, it can also
recover significant amounts of underwater minerals relatively efficiently and cheaply.
Placer mining : Placer mining is used to exploit loosely consolidated deposits like common sand and
gravel or gravels containing gold, tin, diamonds, platinum, titanium, or gems. Placer mining affects
large surface areas for the volume of material mined, is highly visible and has serious environmental
problems with surface disturbance and stream pollution. For deposits of such low grade to be worked
they must be near water, on or near the surface of the ground, and should be only loosely consolidated
so that drilling and blasting are not necessary.
Placer minerals such as gold, tin, and tungsten minerals, are of relatively high value, but the value of
the placer gravel itself may be very low, often less than a dollar per cubic yard.

Placer deposits are concentrations of heavy minerals, usually within loose alluvium that can easily be
excavated and washed.

4.9 Sluicing:

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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 along the bottom of the sluice cause the water to eddy into small basins, slowing down
the current so that gold may settle.

4.10 Open-Pit Mining :

Also known as open-cast mining, open-cut mining, and strip mining, this type of mining extracts rock
and minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit. The process requires the digging of
large open holes as opposed to a small shaft and tunnels used in hard rock mining. Not so often
utilized in the 19th century, it is a common practice today, especially with copper and coal. Because
this type of mining devastates the landscape, regulations are generally in effect that requires
companies to restore the environment when the mining is complete.

Open-cut methods can be conveniently grouped under various headings, but the underlying principle
of excavating and transporting the material to the washing apparatus, either by hand labor or by some
mechanical means, remains the same. It therein differs from hydraulic mining, where the gravel is
moved by water under pressure.

5.0 Conditions Affecting Placer Mining:

Short operating seasons, frozen ground, isolated districts with difficult transportation conditions, high
freight rates, and high priced labor militate against low operating costs; nevertheless there is still a
vast field of opportunity for experienced and efficient operators.

5.1 Important placers:

Placer Deposits are defined as economic accumulations of valuable minerals; such as gold, platinum,
tin, tungsten, titanium, diamonds and zircon, which have been concentrated by mechanical action due
to their high density and resistance to chemical weathering and physical abrasion. Alluvial deposits,
formed by rivers and streams, are the biggest component of placers but the term also includes
colluvial (gravity driven rock debris), eluvial (residual in-situ rock breakdown), beach and aeolian
(wind transported) deposits, amongst others.

5.2 Gold placers:

As a rule, finely-divided gold travels long distances under flood conditions. Gold placers, or deposits
such as gravel and sand which contain notable concentrations of gold, all result from the slow milling
and concentration processes incident to natural erosion of pre-existing gold-bearing rocks. The origin
of many gold placers is traceable directly to auriferous veins, lodes, or replacement deposits which, in
most instances, were not of high grade. The formation of gold placers is determined by (1) the
occurrence of gold in bedrock to which erosion has access, (2) the separation of the gold from the
bedrock by weathering or erosion, and (3) the transportation, sorting, and deposition of the auriferous
material derived from erosion. The gold-bearing gravels occur not only in gulches and old channels
which traverse or issue from pediments, but also, in many cases, as mantle upon the pediment itself.

5.3 Alluvial Diamond Deposits

Alluvial diamond deposits are derived from the weathering, erosion and transportation of diamonds
from diamondiferous kimberlite pipes, dikes, fissures and lamproitic intrusions by fluvial processes.
These processes can produce large alluvial diamond fields. Alluvial diamond deposits are presently
known to occur in South Africa, Angola, Australia, Brazil, Democratic Republic of Congo (“DRC”),
Central African Republic, Sierra Leone and Venezuela.

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 5.4 Placer Deposits of Thorium:

Some common minor primary constituents of igneous rocks carry uranium and thorium in
isomorphous substitution for Ca, some REE and other elements. Monazite, apatite, zircon and sphene
are some of the most abundant minerals belonging to this category. Monazite is the chief source of
thorium in the world. In Andhra Pradesh thick ilmenite and monazite placers are found around
Vishakhapatnam and Bhimunipatnam. The beach sands of the coastal tracts of Kerala and Tamil
Nadu are also very rich in monazite. They also contain ilmenite and rutile.

6. 0 Conclusion:

A placer deposit, or placer, is a natural accumulation of heavy valuable minerals, which is formed by
the gravitational effect during sedimentary processes. Heavy minerals, that are washed off from their
matrix by weathering processes, slowly move down into the streams and settle in the lighter matrix.
As a result, these minerals are concentrated in residual, beach, and stream deposits, thereby forming
workable ore deposits. Minerals of placer deposits have high weathering resistance, durability and
high specific gravity. Placer mining is an important source of gold, and was the main technique used
in the early years of many gold rushes, including the California Gold Rush. Exploration for placer
deposits, especially for ilmenites, has been undertaken in the southern parts of Tamil Nadu, India.

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