Ron Peterson asked:

The precious metal of gold has fascinated humans for thousands of years. But how do we actually get it out of the ground? Let’s take a look at the most common ways to mine gold.

There are two main gold mining methods, one is called “placer” and the other is “vein” mining. And another type of mining is when gold is collected as a by-product in the mining of other metals.

Placer Mining

Placer mining is practiced when the metal is found in unconsolidated deposits of sand and gravel from which the gold can be easily separated because of its high density. The sand and gravel suspended in moving water. Much heavier metal sinks to bottom and is separated by hand.

The simplest method of placer mining is panning. Here the miner swirls the mixture in a pan rapidly enough to carry the water and most of the gravel and sand over the edge while the gold remains on bottom. This was the classic method used by the Forty-Niners during the California gold rush of 1849 and has been immortalized in story, art, and song.

A more efficient form of placer mining uses a sluice box, a U-shaped trough with a gentle slope and transverse bars firmly attached to the trough bottom.

The bars — extending from side to side — catch the heaviest particles and prevent them from washing down the slope.

Sand and gravel are placed in the high end, the gate to a water supply is opened, and the lighter material is washed through the sluice box and out the lower end. The materials are caught behind the bars and are gleaned to recover gold.

Another variation of placer mining is called hydraulic mining. A very strong stream of water is directed at natural sand and gravel banks washing away the lighter materials. The suspended materials treated as if they were in giant sluice box.

Currently the most important placer technique is dredging. A huge shovel of several cubic meters capacity lifts the unconsolidated sand and gravel from soil and mud and the placer process starts.

Vein Mining

Vein, or lode mining is the most important of gold recovery methods. Each ounce of gold recovered requires the processing of about 100,000 ounces of ore. Much gold is deposited in rock veins and this method accounts for more than half world’s total gold production. Gold in veins may be of microscopic particle size, in nuggets or sheets, or in gold compounds. The ore requires extensive extraction and refining.

One-third of all gold is produced as a by-product of copper, lead, and zinc production. Copper must be electrolytically refined to raise its purity from 99% to the more than 99.99% that is required for many industrial purposes.

In the refining process an anode of impure copper is electrolyzed in a bath in which the cathode is a very thin sheet of highly refined copper. This process

creates anode sludge which contains gold in quantities sufficient to make its recovery profitable. One-third of all gold is obtained from such by-products.

Silver and platinum are also recovered from the copper anode sludge in quantities large enough to more than pay for the total refining process.

Extraction, Refining and Uses of Gold

Ore from the gold mine is first crushed in rod or ball mills. This process reduces the ore to a powdery substance. The gold is then extracted by amalgamation with mercury or by placer procedures. Approx. 70% is recovered at this point.

The remainder is then dissolved in dilute solutions of sodium cyanide or calcium cyanide. The addition of metallic zinc to these solutions causes metallic gold to precipitate. This precipitate is refined by smelting and the purification is completed by electrolysis. The sludge produced in this process will also contain commercial quantities of silver, platinum, osmium, and other rare-earth metals.

Gold is one of the first two or three metals, along with copper and silver that was used by humans in these metals’ elemental states. Because of its poor chemical reactivity it was found uncombined and required no knowledge of refining. Gold was used in decorative arts before 9000 BC. And civilizations prized gold for its beauty.

A principal use of gold today is as a currency reserve. For centuries gold was used directly as currency along with silver. During the 19th century, gold assumed the role as the sole basis of the currencies of most nations. Paper money was directly convertible into gold.

World War I, however, disrupted the “gold-standard” system. The original gold standard was gradually abandoned. The United States stopped minting gold coinage in 1934 and the dollar eventually emerged as the principal unit of international monetary transactions.

Since the 1970s, gold has been bought and sold on the world market, with widely fluctuating prices. Today gold reserves maintain only a very indirect relationship with currency values. However, as gold has declined as a currency reserve, its use in industrial processes has risen. On top of this, its beauty and workability continue to give gold an important role in the world’s jewelry industry.

prospecting tools

Alia Jocob asked:

In Esquire magazine’s regular “What I’ve Learned” section, heiress, celebutante and overall media princess Paris Hilton hands out a few nuggets of wisdom. It’s not surprising that someone as saturated in the limelight can have some pretty out-there ideas about herself. Nonetheless, anything that comes out of Paris’s pink, puckered mouth is very amusing to us regular folk, at the very least.

Here are just a few excerpts from the section:

“There are definitely a lot of misconceptions about me out there. ‘Oh, she doesn’t work. She doesn’t do anything. She just gets money from her family.’ That’s not true at all. I was up making phone calls at seven in the morning, and I’ll be working until 1:00 A.M.”

“I was the oldest granddaughter. Everyone was so excited that I was born; they would always take pictures of me. My grandma would call me Marilyn Monroe or Grace Kelly. Ever since I was little, it’s what I knew I wanted to do–be a blond icon.”

“Once I’ve worn a dress, I can never wear it again. I give them to charities and they auction them off to help people with breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, and AIDS. Some that are really, really special, I keep in storage for my daughters. They’ll be vintage by then. I think my daughters will love them.”

“The best thing I’ve ever bought with money is my house. I call it my Paris Palace. It’s beautiful. Every room has beautiful crystal chandeliers and amazing moldings from Italy. When people come over they say, ‘Hey, this looks just like you.’”

“Because of my last name and the way I look, some people think I’m a spoiled brat. But I’m not like that at all. I’m one of the most down-to-earth people I know out of anyone in Hollywood.”

“Things may seem to naturally come my way. But I work hard for them, too. I have good karma.”

“You may not be able to be hot when you’re seventy-five in a conventional sense. Like, young people won’t think you’re hot. But your husband will, and so will people your own age.”

For more celebrity news and gossip, visit Celebrity Gossip Hollywood.

gold metal detectors

Vince Platania, Jr. asked:

Despite the longest title possible, Indy is back. The year isn’t 1936 (Raiders of the Lost Ark), 1935 (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) or even 1938 (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), but 1957. The shift to a new decade is one of the reasons the film works, as co-creators Steven Spielberg and George Lucas do an excellent job of placing bare-knuckled Indiana so far into the next decade.

This time, the Nazis are out and the Commies are in. While it might have been easy to make the two interchangeable, or worst, draw some comparison to the current political climate, Spielberg, Lucas and screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park, The Shadow, Spider-Man) nail the chilling paranoia of the 1950′s. Indiana (Harrison Ford) gets his own taste of Red Scare when he survives a close brush with eerie Soviet officer Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) and winds up on the receiving end of FBI suspicion. Spalko delivers an unnerving speech about her plan to use the psychic power of the crystal skull to change the way America thinks. It’s a spine-tingling commentary on subtle Cold War subversion.

Of course, Indiana Jones isn’t alone in his efforts to prevent Soviet domination. His first ally is the treacherous Mac (Ray Winstone), whose loyalties shift multiple times during the movie. His more dependable sidekick is grease-monkey Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf), the son of Indy’s Raider flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen). John Hurt also plays Harold Oxley, a mutual friend of Indy and Marion who’s become a babbling wreck upon discovering the eponymous crystal skull.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a solid expansion of the original trilogy. Everyone on the cast enjoys excellent chemistry, especially between LeBeouf and Ford. There are a few moments when Lucas and Keopp clearly wrote themselves up the creek without a paddle, like when they chose to interrupt a brilliant swordfight between Mutt and Irina with “monkey business”, or when Indiana can offer no better reason to return the crystal skull other than “it told me to.” But though the latest Indiana Jones doesn’t reach the same height as Raiders or Last Crusade, it does manage to blow the uneven Temple of Doom out of the water, all with a 64 year old star who still has what it takes to crack a bullwhip.

Wendy Legendre asked:


Pirate themes have always been a fun choice for parties, but even more so now with the popularity of the blockbuster “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. Johnny Depp has certainly given new life to the fantasy of playing a pirate, adding fun and comedy to the already exciting seafaring adventures. So, why not plan an adventure of your own this year and host a swashbuckling fun pirate party.

Make a list of friends and acquaintances you would like to invite to your pirate party and assign each one of them their own pirate name. Use online pirate lingo translators to create fun names like Butterfingers Alena and Ian Deadbones.

Include pirate wording on your invitations and print them on aged paper. If it’s a costume party, be sure to include that information also.

Ahoy thar Mateys!

Ye`re invited t’a pirate party

(date, time and location)

Take Note Ye Scalliwags…

Dress like a buccaneer if ye dare.

We have PRIZES fer best pirate costume.

Roll up the printed invitations and tie them with some burlap twine. Put each invitation in a bottle and attach a pirate label with the pirate name of the invited guest, along with an aka mention of their real name. (Mini champagne bottles work well for this.) Pour some sand or salt in the bottles along with a few small seashells and the invitation. Hand deliver the invitations to friends or use plastic bottles instead so that you can address and mail them.

If you have the creativity and means, decorate a room with old chests, barrels and tables made from weathered wood. Borrow or buy uniquely shaped bottles from second hand shops and flea markets. Clean them thoroughly and fill them with party beverages like cola and gingerale. Label them with fun pirate stickers, like “Non-Groggy Pirate’s Rum”. Mix up a disgusting variety of liquids like vinegar, cherry juice and hot sauce and label the bottle, “Drink if You Dare.”

Pirate-themed games and activities will make your party complete.

. Set up tables for playing cards and “Liar’s Dice”.

. Throw in a “Pirates of the Caribbean” trivia competition and then watch one of the movies.

. Have guests try and decipher the meanings of various pirate words.

. Send your guests on a pirate scavenger hunt that leads to a treasure chest of delicious treats.

. Instead of bobbing for apples, try searching for a candy eyeball in a gooey mess of jello and pasta.

. Challenge your guests to a sword fight dual on a low balance beam (use safety precautions).

. Hand out pirate coins to use for various challenges and bets throughout the night and give a prize to the person with the most coins at the end of the party.

When it’s time to send your guests home, a great favor to give is a game of “Liar’s Dice”. Print and roll up the instructions and place them in an opaque cup (They have great antique looking one’s at the dollar store). Include 5 dice, some chocolate coins, candy eyeballs, and whatever treats or trinkets you wish to include. Wrap the cups with clear cellophane, tie with burlap twine and finally, attach a pirate sticker or thank you tag.

So, what ye be waitin’ fer? Start plannin’ yer swashbucklin’ fun pirate party.

Ed Bagley asked:


Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

National Treasure  3 Stars (Good)

It took an inordinately long time for movie land to bring us a modern day treasure hunt worth watching, but Director Jon Turteltaub delivered big time in National Treasure, the story of a secret treasure that crosses the centuries.

National Treasure is the story of a vast bounty that continues to grow and change hands throughout time until confiscated by the Knights Templar as early as the 11th Century during the Crusades. The Knights Templar become the modern day Masons.

Eventually the treasure finds its way to our shores, and our founding fathers, several of whom were Masons, hide the treasure to help finance the Revolutionary War against the British.

Then the treasure was lost and six generations of the Gates Family carry on a search to prove its existence, the last of which is Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage). Gates is joined by sidekick Riley Poole (Justin Bartha), Patrick Gates (Jon Voight as Ben’s father) and Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger).

Gates ends up stealing the Declaration of Independence to validate a clue and get the important document before the bag guys do (all treasure hunts have bad guys in the chase). Abigail, the curator of the National Archives, is pulled into the chase to recover the original document, and she eventually joins with Gates in a quest for the truth.

National Treasure is full of obscure clues, the trail of which keeps viewers riveted to the story line written by Jim Kouf and Oren Aviv, and polished by uncredited screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio.

It starts on the Arctic Coast with a 200-year-old meerschaum pipe found aboard a ship buried in snow named Charlotte, confirming the first clue: The Secret Lies With Charlotte. For the curious, meerschaum is a soft, white claylike material consisting of hydrated magnesium silicate, found chiefly in Turkey, so, in this case, meerschaum is a Turkish smoking pipe.

From there the original Declaration of Independence is stolen to confirm the presence of an undetected code on the back of the document.

Then it is on to the Silence Dogood Letters written by a young Benjamin Franklin when he was a printer with his brother. From there to the Liberty Bell at Independence Hall in Philadelphia and an ocular device (eyeglasses) hidden in a brick wall. Finally we are taken to Trinity Church near Broadway and Wall Streets in New York, and the grave of Parkington Lane.

In the end, the 200-year-old meerschaum pipe provides the “key” to the treasure.

This is a good film because of some nifty writing and direction by Jon Turteltaub. National Treasure loses the honors race for recognition by Oscar and associated award venues, but wins the viewer race by capturing its audience.

The unlikely path to finding the treasure is a 200-year-old wood staircase several stories high and fraught with crumbling boards and heroic escapes. I liked this film and I hope it shows.

Unlike the Indiana Jones trilogy with Harrison Ford, where you are drawn to Ford and his action adventure antics, National Treasure stays focused on the clues with the actors not upstaging the treasure hunt story line.

Turteltaub does this without the usual Hollywood props of sex, drugs, drinking, profanity, rape and murder, and gets high marks plus a Disney rating (PG) for doing so. The entire family can watch this movie without the fear of inappropriate scenes. There is some violence but by Hollywood standards for violence it is nothing.

Nick Cage does a good job in this film staying focused on the treasure chase, and Diane Kruger does most of her own stunt work in a harrowing car chase scene.

I like this movie despite some improbable happenings and filming goofs. None of this seems to interfere with the mission at hand: solving the clues and discovering the treasure.

See National Treasure. You will like it, especially if you like treasure hunts, or good story lines about treasure hunts.