Gold mining must have been the most lucrative businesses of all times. Gold mining is the term used for the integrated processes and techniques employed in finding and extracting gold from streams and earth. It may be present in the form of particles in loose sediment in places called placer mines; or in the form of ores in hard rocks, buried deep down in the earth.

Various methods are used in mining gold from placer mines and hard rocks. In the placer mines, gold is recovered with the method of gravity separation, and in the hard rocks, gold is separated form other metals and substances by chemical reactions.

The first and the foremost step for gold mining are to locate if gold is present in some specific area or not. This is normally done with the help of the process called gold planning or by the use of metal detector. It is not advisable to use gold planning, because it is not of much benefit to be used commercially. Using a metal detector is a lot much easier as it easily checks the presence of gold under any specific site and it can be done on a larger scale.

In many areas, gold deposits are found in the stream beds. Such places are called placer deposits. Sluicing is the common method to extract gold efficiently by the gold miners. The sluice box is a wooden box designed in such a way that the gold material is placed on its top. It is immersed in the stream to channel water flow. Gold and other heavier particles settle in the bottom of the box and the remaining silt is washed away by the current. Sluicing can be used on small as well as on larger scales.

Another famous method of gold extraction is called dredging; it is an old method which is not much in use nowadays. Suction dredges are used to extract gold in this method. A small machine floating on water is called dredge. This machine has a sluice box and a suction hose fixed in it. Small particles of gold are very easily extracted though small suction hose. Whereas, suction hoses are good for extracting large gold particles. In the process of dredging at a large scale, earth movers like excavators are used in order to dig out the gravel containing gold. When this gravel passes through the sluice box fixed inside, the gold particles get trapped in it. This method is very good in a way that it does not destroy the vegetation, and it also recycles the water completely; therefore, it is an economical and eco friendly method. New Zealand and Canada still employ this method of extraction.

The areas where gold is found in the form of hard rock, the hard rock extraction method is used. The biggest gold mines of hard rocks in the world are present in South Africa. The two types of hard rock mining are open pit mining and underground mining.

For the extraction of gold from its ores of sodium cyanide, chemical reaction is used, and for separating gold from other substances, active carbon is used.

Gold has been a sign of beauty, wealth and power for most of the men, women and nations across the world. Gold is also an important indicator of economy of any country. Gold mining has been an important and attractive thing for many people and it would continue to be so in future.

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