Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Hookah Dredge Diving

Sorry to say Goldenrod is still a few days out from being ready to splash...Now it is looking like Friday or Saturday.  The crew is working very hard to make sure all systems are a go before they launch her. Although Goldenrod is not a hookah dive dredge, there are many operations in Nome that are run this way.  Divers go to the bottom and suction water, sand, gravel and gold through a hose via a gas powered pump.  This mix runs through a sluice box on the boat where the gold sinks to the bottom of and the water and such runs back out to the sea (gold is 19 times heavier than water).  In a typical day, a dredge miner may work over 10-100 sq feet of seafloor. 

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