Dry blowing

Dry blowing is a method to extract gold particles from dry soil without the use of water. A machine specialized to use this method is known as a dry blower. It is a form of winnowing.

Methods
  • One method is to pour dry soil from a height into a pan, allowing the wind to blow away finer dust. The denser gold particles to fall into the pan.[1]
  • Alternatively, the prospector would use one pan and throw dirt up into the air and catch it.[2]

References
  1. Swirk: Success of early mining methods
  2. Geology.com: Gold Prospecting - Alluvial & General

See also
  • Sluice box
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