Ground Sluicing
Hydraulic mining had its precursor in the practice of ground sluicing, a development of which is also known as "hushing", in which surface streams of water were diverted so as to erode gold-bearing gravels. This was originally used in the Roman empire in the first centuries AD and BC, and expanded throughout the empire wherever alluvial deposits occurred The Romans used ground sluicing to remove overburden and the gold-bearing debris in Las Médulas of Spain, and Dolaucothi in Britain. The method was also used in Elizabethan Britain for developing lead, tin and copper mines.
Read more about this topic: Hydraulic Mining, Precursor
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)