After passing through the mining-themed entrance, going on an underground mine tour, and watching a gold pouring demonstration at Gold Reef City (a gold mining themed amusement park in Johannesburg, South Africa), my husband and I decided to try the “Gold Panning” activity. I must admit, we were somewhat disappointed in this activity, which involved “panning” for some shiny metal (but not gold– it was very different in texture, density, etc.) in a fake stream filled with some quartz sand. My husband and I both work for a gold exploration company, so we have experience panning for real gold in the field. We found the Gold Reef City “Gold Panning” experience to be less-than-satisfying. But we took a picture of me “panning” anyway.
Stay tuned… there will be more pictures from Gold Reef City next week!
Here are some pictures of real gold panning in Alaska:
My husband Jackie panning for gold on the beach in Nome, Alaska, Summer 2012.Me, posing with a bag of heavy mineral concentrate (and gold!) on the Nome beach. That's an old gold mining dredge in the background. Nome, Alaska, Summer 2012.A gold pan with garnet-rich sand and little flakes of gold. Nome, Alaska, Summer 2012.
Gold pouring demonstration? Sounds highly interesting! Those "This demonstration is not performed with real gold" signs were everywhere. I guess it would be very tempting to steal the gold otherwise!
After entering through the impressive entrance and going on the underground mine tour, my husband and I went to the gold pouring demonstration at Gold Reef City, a theme park in Johannesburg, South Africa that is situated on the site of an old gold mine. We visited the theme park back in September 2012.
The gold pouring demonstration doesn’t use real gold but is nevertheless impressive! Also, there is a real gold brick (I think– possibly it’s a fake brick) displayed on a table at the end of the demonstration. My husband tells me that in the old days they used to say that whoever could pick up the gold brick with just two fingers could take it home with them. I don’t think anyone was ever successful!
The gold price in September 2012. This sign is updated daily, I believe. The gold price has dropped significantly since last September.Another reminder.Demonstration #1.Demonstration #2.Demonstration #3.Demonstration #4.Hot hot hot!Hot and glowing.A real gold brick. I think. Possibly this is a fake brick.
That’s all for now. I’ll share some more pictures from Gold Reef City next week.
My husband Jackie and I during the underground mine tour.
For a few weeks, I’m sharing some pictures from a visit to Gold Reef City, a gold mining themed amusement park in Johannesburg, South Africa, back in September 2012. Last week I shared some pictures of the mining-themed entrance. This week I am sharing some pictures from the underground mine tour. The park is located on the site of an old gold mine. Now that water is no longer being pumped out of the mine in large quantities, most of the mine has flooded. However, the upper part of the mine is still accessible, and you can arrange to go on an underground tour with a guide. I highly recommend the tour. It’s fascinating to see the mine, and the guide that we had was extremely knowledgeable. My husband and I were the only people signed up for the early morning tour, so our guide spent extra time with us and even pointed out a few things that weren’t on the regular tour. Since my husband and I are in the gold mining industry ourselves, we certainly had plenty of questions. Our guide said that she appreciated our enthusiasm and said that, sadly, many of the schoolchildren who go on the tour are not very interested– they are much more interested in the rides and entertainment up top!
Without further ado, here are several pictures from the underground mine tour:
Early extent of the mine, 1916-1920. Mine goes to 975 meters depth.The mine just before its closure in 1977. Mine goes to 3,200 meters depth. The elevator down the mineshaft.We were quite excited to be headed down the mineshaft.Mining equipment. The walls are painted white to increase the effect of illumination.This box was used to store dynamite. It has a sloping top to prevent miners from accidentally putting lanterns on top of it. Another dynamite box.There is an underground pub behind this door. You can rent it out for functions. Fun!Old mining posters.
I blogged about the above mining posters previously.
Mining supports and a chute.Jackie checking out one of the old chutes.A simple device for counting.A collapsed part of the mining shaft.A rock drill.Rocks!Mining shaft with creepy mannequin man.Mine shaft supports.Closer view of the mine shaft surfaceInformational sign about the mine. We went to the red depth-- the mine used to go quite a bit deeper!Another view of the rockfaceOld informational sign.Another chute. That's travertine (carbonate rock) forming on the bottom.Another old informational mine sign. I have not idea what a "Tchisa Stick" is. Does anyone know?More signs.Even more signs.Headed back to the elevator.
Hope you enjoyed these pictures. Next week I’ll share some more pictures from Gold Reef City– from the gold brick pouring demonstration!
At the front gate: old ore crushing equipment. This is called a "stampmill".
Back in November, I shared a couple of pictures from a trip to the Gold Reef City theme park in Johannesburg, South Africa. Over the next few weeks, I thought I would share some more pictures from a visit to this gold mine turned amusement park. My husband and I visited the theme park back in September 2012 when we were up in Johannesburg for my sister-in-law’s wedding. If you are ever in Johannesburg, I highly recommend a visit to Gold Reef City!
This week, I thought I would share a few pictures from the front entrance to the theme park. There is plenty of gold mining themed decoration!
Headed toward the front entrance gate.A wider view of the crushing equipment.A close-up shot of some of the crushers.Informational sign about the crushing equipment. Click to enlarge.Gold miner friend #1.Gold miner friend #2. Actually, this picture shows three gold miners since my husband and I work for a gold exploration company. I think our miner friend is telling us how tall we have to be in order to go on the rides.I wore my gold flake earrings, which I bought in Alaska.To the theme park!
I thought I would continue with a few more posts from Alaska.
My husband and I were in Nome, Alaska during July – September 2012. On sunny (and some stormy) days we were generally working. However, on days with poor weather and high seas or winds, we often had some time to explore Nome and the surrounds. One day, we drove up the road to visit The Last Train to Nowhere, a set of three 1880s era steam locomotives that were brought to the Solomon River area outside of Nome in the early 1900s. These locomotives and a few other scattered pieces of metal are all that remains of a failed attempt to build a railway along the Solomon River to a place called Council City, where gold had been discovered. The railway ran for two summers under terrible conditions “unfit for either man or beast” (according to a sign near the trains) and then filed for bankruptcy in 1907. In 1913 a large storm destroyed a railway bridge and washed away most of the tracks, stranding the locomotives where they sit today. Since the train doesn’t go anywhere today, locals have dubbed the stranded locomotives, “The Last Train to Nowhere.”
To reach the train, we drove along a dirt road in a beat-up pick-up truck on a cold and windy August day. Along the way, we also visited a place called “The Safety Roadhouse”, which serves as the last checkpoint of the Iditarod sled dog race, and we explored some old gold dredges.
The Last Train to Nowhere #2.The Last Train to Nowhere #3. An informational sign about the train.Another informational sign about the train.Posing with the train. Yes, I am wearing two jackets and a hat in August!Last Train to Nowhere #4.Last Train to Nowhere #5.Last Train to Nowhere #6, with husband for scale.Another abandoned item near the train. This looks like a ship's hull, but we think it used to be part of a water tower.Waving through a window.Continuing up the road past the train, we found some weathered, old buildings.An abandoned gold dredge.A closer view of the dredge.Waterlogged dredge buckets.Another view of the dredge buckets.Remnants of winter snow along the road.An Alaskan flag, flapping in the wind.The Safety Roadhouse, located on Safety Sound.The walls inside the roadhouse are covered in dollars and other bills.The ceiling is covered, too...We added a South Africa R10 note... next to one left previously by some colleagues of ours.
I still have a few more posts about Alaska coming in the future… hope you’re enjoying these!
Me, standing on top of a glacial erratic boulder in Nome, Alaska, Summer 2012.
def. Glacial Erratic:
A rock which has been transported and deposited by a glacier and which has a different lithology than the rock upon which it has been deposited. Often, erratic rocks have an angular shape because they were broken off of bedrock by glaciers and have not yet had time to be weathered and rounded by water, wind, and other erosional forces. Glacial erratics can range in size from very small pebbles to very large boulders, but usually it is the boulders which are noticed since these stand out in the landscape and are not easily transported away again.
Recently, I have been thinking a fair amount about glacial erratics and other glacial rocks and deposits, such as tills and moraines. That’s because I currently work for a marine gold exploration company that has a project offshore Nome, Alaska, where glaciers have transported gold to the coast along with erratics and other glacial sediments. If you walk along the beaches of Nome, you can spot quite a few glacial erratics, such as the one I’m standing upon in the above picture.
Another glacial erratic on the beach in Nome, Alaska, Summer 2012. Pen for scale.
Having grown up in New England, I’m no stranger to glacial erratics. In fact, back in September I wrote a little about my favorite glacial erratic, which sits on an island in front of my parents’ lakeside cabin in New Hampshire.
Well, I did it again. I forgot to post my Monday Geology Picture on Monday. Sorry about that! I had a long, busy day at work. After work, my husband and I went to see a movie with some friends and only arrived home fairly late.
This week, I thought I would share a picture of some old mining posters which I saw on an underground mine tour (of an inactive mine) at a place called Gold Reef City in Johannesburg, South Africa. At Gold Reef City the area surrounding an abandoned gold mine has been turned into a gold mining themed amusement park. Part of the old gold mine has been preserved for tours, and several of the park attractions are about the history of gold mining in Johannesburg. If you ever find yourself in Johannesburg, I highly recommend a visit to Gold Reef City. The history is very interesting, and the rollercoasters and other rides are pretty fun, too!
Here’s a closer view of the mining posters:
A closer view of the old mining posters at Gold Reef City.
Some of the mining posters are written in an interesting pidgin language called Fanagalo, which is a mixture of primarily Zulu, English, and Afrikaans and has been used for many years as a lingua franca among mineworkers in South Africa and, to a lesser extent, in other southern African countries. In recent years, English has been replacing Fanagalo as a lingua franca in the mines, but there are still some mineworkers who speak Fanagalo. The mining posters likely date from the 1960s and 1970s and advocate safety in the mine.
Gold-bearing garnet sands on Western Beach in Nome, Alaska, Summer 2012.
Above is a gorgeous beach sand picture for this week’s Monday Geology Picture. I took this picture a few weeks ago in Nome, Alaska after a summer storm. The beaches of Nome are rich in red garnet grains. The beaches of Nome are also very rich in grains of gold, and you can bet that if you pan some of the red garnet sand along the Nome beaches, you will find dozens of small flakes of gold. If you pan some of the more gravely beach material, you may even find yourself a gold nugget!
The beaches of Nome are always a rich red color, but after a storm the beaches look particularly red. This is because the storm waves remove some of the lighter beach sand grains (quartz and such) while leaving behind a lag of beautiful bright red garnet… and dark heavy minerals… and gold!
Here are two more pictures of the red garnet beach sands in Nome:
More red garnet sands along Western Beach in Nome, Alaska, Summer 2012. More red garnet sands– and beach cobbles– along Western Beach in Nome, Alaska, Summer 2012.
And here’s proof that if you pan some garnet sand from Nome, you will find gold:
Panned garnet sands from Western Beach in Nome, Alaska, Summer 2012. Note all the little gold glakes on the left side of the pan. Click to enlarge picture.
Gold panning is a gravity concentration process in which a large plastic pan and water are used to separate minerals according to their density. Gold is a very dense material (pure gold has a density of ~19.3 g / cm3), so gold will be sink to the bottom of the pan while much lighter sand grains are washed off during the panning process. Panning first removes the lightest sand grains such as quartz (density of ~2.7 g / cm3) and muscovite (density of ~2.8 g / cm3) and leaves behind heavier grains such as garnet (density of ~3 to 4 g / cm3), magnetite (density of ~5.2 g / cm3), and ilmenite (density of ~4.7 g / cm3). Eventually, the panning process leaves behind a dark-colored, heavy mineral concentrate that is rich in gold!
Here I am with just such a concentrate from Western Beach in Nome:
Me, with a gold pan and a bag of gold-bearing heavy mineral concentrate in Nome, Alaska, Summer 2012.
That’s an old gold dredge in the background of the above photo; I’ll write about the some of Nome’s old dredges in another post.
Georneys 