We had a chance to go on the Gastineau Gold Mine tour last week with some other homeschoolers.   I learned all sorts of things about mining.   There are different types of mining: sluicing, hydraulic, dredging, open pit, and hard rock mining.   The mine we toured was a hard rock mine:

Hard rock mining used power tools (we got a very loud demonstration) to take out the gold embedded in tons of ore.  It would then go to be crushed, and then "sifted" out so to speak (like panning for gold on a huge level) to collect the gold.   The mine we went to was once the largest gold mine in the world, going through 12 million tons of gold-bearing ore in its lifetime (avg 10,000 tons a day).  The mine operated from 1915 to 1921.   They also produced electricity and gave it away free to the city of Juneau.  Of course, the mine also owned and operated an electric appliance store.  Because of the free electricity, Juneau was one of the most progressive cities in the early 1900's in regards to electricity use in the home.

Here's everyone getting their hard hats to go inside the shaft:

The boys are ready to go in:

Inside, miner Dave shows us the equipment and explains the process.   In the winter he prepares UAS students who are interested in working at local mines in this area, teaching them how to use the equipment and set off dynamite (we didn't get to see that):

It was a great boys field trip with lots of hands on:

At the end of the tour we even got to pan for gold.  Being the expert panners we are now, we recovered about 30 gold flakes.  If ever in Juneau, one more thing to do...