Diane,
How about iron pyrites and rice/pea gravel; pyrites are cheap enough to
consider allowing the kids to take some "gold" away.
Jack C. Thompson
Thompson Conservation Lab
Portland, OR
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On Mon, 4 Dec 1995, Diane Brenner wrote:
> We are planning an exhibition entitled "Gold Fever in the North" in
> commemoration of the gold rushes to the Yukon and Alaska 100 years ago
> (for the summer of 1997.) We are planning some hands on activities
> within the galleries. I wonder if any of you science or children's
> museums have any experience demonstrating the properties of taking gold
> out of gravel (the placer mining method) using something other than gold,
> gravel and water. We want to do this is a carpeted space too far away
> from water. Could we use rice and buckshot? Garbanzo beans and pea
> gravel? We're looking for the principal of running something through a
> rocker box and having the desired stuff caught in the riffles.
> Impress me with your ingenuity!
> Diane Brenner
> Anchorage Museum
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>