Definition of placer mining

i. The extraction of heavy mineral from a placer deposit by concentration in running water. It includes ground sluicing, panning, shoveling gravel into a sluice, scraping by power scraper and excavation by dragline, dredge or other mechanized equipment.

Ref: Nelson

ii. Extracting the gold or other mineral from placers, wherever situated--in dry channels and in channels temporarily filled with water. The mineral may be found in deep channels, in navigable streams, or in estuaries or creeks and rivers where the sea ebbs and flows.

Ref: Ricketts

iii. That form of mining in which the surficial detritus is washed for gold or other valuable minerals. When water under pressure is employed to break down the gravel, the term hydraulic mining is generally employed. There are deposits of detrital material containing gold which lie too deep to be profitably extracted by surface mining, and which must be worked by drifting beneath the overlying barren material. The term 'drift mining' is applied to the operations necessary to extract such auriferous material.

See Also: dredge

iv. The extraction and concentration of heavy metals or minerals from placer deposits by various methods, generally using running water.

Compare with: alluvial mining, hydraulic mining, drift mining

Ref: AGI