Mining Types:

Hardrock Mining - This mining method requires digging into solid rock to find minerals  in their ore form. The simplest form is utilizing picks and shovels, but rock drills and dynamite were often used as well. Shafts and tunnels might go straight down into the ground or advance horizontally into a mountain faces. Shafts and tunnels were often supported with large timbers to prevent cave-ins, but accidents were prevalent in early mining days. Deep shafts were generally accompanied by a head frame standing above them to support the hoists. These types of mines almost always eventually flooded as they got closer to the water table, at which times pumps were used to remove the water. In some cases; however, there was so much water that a mine would have to be abandoned.

Placer Mining - Pronounced plăs'ər, this type of mining involves the obtaining of minerals from placer deposits by washing or dredging. The word placer comes from the Spanish word meaning "sandbank," and refers to mineral deposits, particularly gold and gemstones found in alluvial deposits -- sand and gravel found in modern or ancient stream beds. This is the oldest method of recovering gold from alluvial deposits and is also the easiest, including panning, sluicing, using a rocker, or if lucky enough, simply picking up what lies on the ground. Placer mining also includes dredging and hydraulic methods. Placer mining takes advantage of gold's high density, which causes it to sink more rapidly from moving water than the lighter materials it is found in.

Dredging -  The most important placer-mining method today,  this involves the use of a floating boat or barge with either a series of buckets to scoop gravel, or a suctioning apparatus to vacuum gravel from the bottom of a creek or river. The most common type of dredge used in gold placer mining in the early 1900s was a bucket-ladder dredge that is a chain of continuous buckets rotating around a rigid adjustable frame called the ladder. The use of dredges is also accompanied with the use of sluices to separate the gold from gravel and debris.

Hydraulic Mining - Another type of placer mining, this utilizes high pressure water that is sprayed at an area of rock and/or gravel, which breaks up the rock and dislodges ore and placer deposits. The water/ore mixture is then milled. Due to its destructive forces, this type of mining has been outlawed in most areas.