GLOSSARY

Adamantine - Having diamond luster.

Adit - A horizontal tunnel from the surface draining a mine.

Alluvium - Deposit by streams.

Amalgamation - Combining mercury with another metal.

Analysis - A chemical search whereby the nature (qualitative) and amount (quantitative) of the components of a substance are found out.

Aqua regia - A mixture of 3 parts hydrochloric acid with 1 part strong nitric acid.

Arenaceous - Sandy.

Argentiferous - Silver-bearing.

Argillaceous - Clay-bearing.

Arrastra - A rotary and primitive mill.

Assay - A test.

Assay-ton - 29.166 2-3 grammes.

Auriferous - Gold-bearing.

Bar - Obstruction in the bed of a river.

Bar-diggings - Claims in the shallows of streams.

Base Metals - Those not classed as precious.

Batea - Mexican gold-washing dish.

Battery - A set of stamps for crushing.

Bed - A seam or deposit.

Bed-rock - Solid stratum below porous material.

Bench - Old river bed; also called a terrace.

Booming - The sudden discharge of accumulated water.

Bort - Black diamond.

Calcite - Carbonate of lime.

Canon - Pronounced canyon; a gorge.

Carat - About 4 grains Troy.

Cement - Compacted gravel.

Color - A speck of gold.

Country Rock - The rock enclosing a vein.

Cradle - A mining apparatus; also called a rocker.

Cupriferous - Copper-bearing.

Decrepitate - Crackling when hot.

Development - Work done in opening a mine.

Dip - The inclination of a vein at right angles to its length.

Dolly - A primitive stamp-mill.

Drift - A horizontal gallery in a mine; or the rubbish left by the last ice age.

Drifting - Driving a tunnel.

Dump - A heap of vein stuff, etc.

Exploitation - The actual mining following exploration.

Fathom - Six feet.

Fault - A break in a vein or bed.

Float-gold - Fine grains that do not sink in the water.

Float - Veinstone or ore by which a vein is traced.

Flume - Wooden troughs carrying water.

Flux - Material added to help fusion.

Foliated - In thin layers.

Gangue - Veinstone.

Gouge - A selvage of clay between vein and country rock.

Grade - The inclination of a ditch, etc.

Grating - Perforated iron sheet, or bars with spaces.

Gravel - Broken down, rounded rock fragments.

Ground Sluice - A gutter in which gold is washed.

Iridescent - Showing the hues of the rainbow.

Litharge - Proto oxide of lead.

Long Tom - A machine for saving alluvial gold.

Marl - Clay containing lime.

Miner’s Inch - An arbitrary measure of water regulated by local custom.

Mundic - Iron pyrites.

Open Cut - A surface working.

Outcrop - That part of a vein showing on the surface.

Oxidation - A chemical union with oxygen.

Oxide - Combination of a metal with oxygen.

Panning - Washing gravel, or crushed rock, in a gold-miner’s pan to detect gold, etc.

Peroxide - The oxide of any substance that is richest in oxygen.

Placer - A deposit of valuable metal in gravel.

Plat - A map from an original survey.

Plumbago - Graphite or black lead.

Precipitate - Matter separated from a solution.

Pulp - Pulverized ore mixed with water.

Quarry - An open working.

Quartz - Silica.

Quartzose - Containing a large proportion of quartz.

Reduce - To turn ore into metal by taking away oxygen.

Riffle - A groove or strip to catch gold and mercury in a sluice.

Roasting - Heating in contact with air.

Shaft - A pit giving access to a vein or working.

Stratum - Bed or layer.

Striated - Marked with parallel workings.

Strip - To remove overlying material from a vein.

Sulphate - A salt containing sulphuric acid.

Sulphide - A combination of sulphur and a metal.

Sulphurets - When the miner employs this term he usually means pyrites.

Tailings - The refuse matter after ore has been crushed.

Throw - The movements of vein caused by a fault; it may be up or down.

Translucent - If light passes through a mineral, it is translucent; if you can see the details of an object through it, it is transparent.

Underlie - The same thing as dip.

Unstratified - Without stratification or bedding.

Wash Dirt - Auriferous gravel or clay.

Whim - A machine for hoisting by a revolving drum.

Winze - An interior shaft connecting the levels.

Zinc - White oxide of zinc.