Glossary
ADIT:
A horizontal or nearly horizontal entrance to a mine, otherwise
known as a tunnel.
ARRASTRA:
A Spanish word for a circular rock-crushing device usually
powered by a mule.
ASSAY:
Measuring proportion of gold or silver content in ore.
CLAIM:
A legal document stating the boundries of a proposed mining
excavation.
DREDGE:
A mining process by which sand in a river bed or stream
is scooped up from the bottom and minerals are extracted.
FLOAT:
Fragments of ore that had broken off a main vein to become
buried rock outcropping.
HEADFRAME:
The vertical apparatus over a mine shaft that has cables
to be lowered down the shaft for the raising and lowering
of ore and men.
HIGH GRADING:
A method perfected by miners for carrying off rich ore from
the mines and selling it themselves.
HYDRAULIC MINING:
A process of washing ore from its bed with powerfull jets
of water.
JUMPING A CLAIM:
A method of taking over a good mining claim after it had
already been staked out by someone else.
MILL:
A building in which rock is crushed in order to extricate
minerals. Mills are usually constructed on the side of hills
and are gravity fed. This leads to the stairstep foundations
one can usually see.
MOTHER LODE:
The main or primary deposit or vein of a given mineral.
NUGGET:
A lump of native or pure gold found in deposits and placer
mines.
PLACER:
A waterborne deposit of sand or gravel containing heavier
minerals like gold that have been eroded from their original
bedrock and concentrated as small particles that can be
washed out.
PLATTING:
Planning or mapping a townsite.
SHAFT:
A vertical or nearly vertical opening into the Earth's surface.
SLUICE:
an inclined trough, usually made of wood, for washing gold
ore. The flow of the water is regulated by flood gates.
SMELTER:
A building or complex in which material is melted to be
separated from impurities.
STAMP MILL:
A machine that crushes rock by means of a big heavy stamp
that falls on the rock.
TAILINGS:
Waste or refuse left after milling is complete, sometimes
referred to as waste dumps.
WASTE DUMP:
Waste rock that comes out of a mine.
WINZE:
A shaft sunk from an adit.
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