This video is kinda sad, in that its the only real proof of how mankind used to just roll up their sleeves and get shit done. No whining, no worrying about what bs environmental impact this or any other activity had. We simply got shit done in order to feed our families. Today we live in a sad, over pc'd society of pussified men and cranky angry women. The video is amazing, but still sad. Definitely one for my archive. Thanks for sharing.
Strange thing - in 1875 they had water pumps throwing 80 cubic meters of water per MINUTE at 60 meters distance (www.sierracollege.edu/ejournals/jsnhb/v2n1/monitors.html) To compare - modern 3 inch honda pump - with 1 cubic meter per minute.
This is great footage. Thanks for sharing. Looks like they didn't even sweat the small stuff back then. Why worry about fine gold dust when you've got a bucketful of nuggets. Really enjoyed it, thanks again.
I guess you failed to see that the "Nuggets" were lumps of amalgam - and that the open removal (vaporization) of Mercury through heat means that there was a boatload of Mercury fumes in the air. I've used Mercury to recover Gold and the mainstay of Mercury amalgam *is* the "small stuff" meaning ultra fines.
These days alot of larger scale operations will use shaker tables that separate the gold - even 100 mesh and smaller. Some companies claim this can recover 98% or more of all concentrates processed and the process is completely mercury free. Though mercury is still used in large scale mining in South America and other countries as a cheap and efficient alternative. They claim it's OK because the rivers and streams are already contaminated. Pretty ridiculous...
@@jimmurphy4703 Okay. It appears that he scoops the gold/mercury amalgam right into the furnace. What happened to the mercury? Did it simply burn off in the heat of the furnace? Or, was the slag he chipped off the top of the gold brick made up of mercury and other impurities? Please advise. Thanks.
@@arthurc1971 - I did some asking around after I left this comment. The mercury was introduced [very carefully] at the top of the sluice box. What I haven't been able to find out is how they recovered it. Mercury was expensive, even back then, so they had to recover as much of it as they could. In early, small scale operations they would actually put a glob of the gold/mercury amalgam onto a large piece of deerskin, then twist the deerskin tighter and tighter until the mercury oozed through the pores of the skin. Sounds crazy, but that's how they did it. Of course, that method wouldn't work in a large-scale dredging operation such as that pictured in this film. When I find the answer to this mystery, I'll let you know.
