placer mining, oldest ancient method of recovering gold from alluvial deposits—i.e., using water to excavate, transport, concentrate, and recover heavy minerals from alluvial or placer deposits. Examples of deposits mined by means of this technique are the gold-bearing sands and gravel that settle out from rapidly moving streams and rivers at points where they slow the current slows down. Placer mining takes advantage of gold’s high density, which causes it to sink more rapidly from moving water than the lighter siliceous materials with which it is found. Though the basic principles of placer mining have not altered since early times, methods have improved considerably.

Panning, used by miners during the great gold strikes of the 19th century, employed a pan or a batea (a pan or basin with radial corrugations) in which a few handfuls of the gold-bearing soil or gravel and a large amount of water were placed. By swirling the contents of the pan, the miner washed the siliceous lighter material over the side, leaving the gold and heavy materials behind.

An improvement over the pan and batea was the rocker, or cradle, named for its resemblance to a child’s cradle. As it was rocked, it sifted large quantities of ore. Gravel was shovelled shoveled onto a perforated iron plate, and water was poured over it, causing the finer material to drop through the perforations and onto the an apron that distributed it across the riffles, . The apron distributed the material across riffled pieces of wood or iron perpendicular to the bottom and sides of the cradle. As the material moved through the cradle, the gold was caught on the riffles, to be removed later.

Dredging became the most important placer mining method in the early 20th century and remains so today. Used worldwide is the bucket–ladder dredge, characterized by a continuous chain of buckets rotating around a rigid adjustable frame called the ladder. Paddock dredging, a later development, allows mining of placer deposits even if they are not in or near a riverbed. The dredge floats in its own pond that is continuously extended by digging at one end and simultaneously filled at the other end with waste, or tailings.


