placer mining
- noun
- /ˈpleɪsər ˈmaɪnɪŋ/
- Specialized
:
minería de placer
- During the gold rush, many prospectors turned to placer mining as a way to quickly recover gold from river deposits.
Examples
-
Overall, tens of thousands of small-scale miners are engaged in placer gold mining and represent a major source of conflict with placer mining companies.
Academic text (2006) -
As yields from placer mining declined, miners looked to the gold-bearing Tertiary beds exposed along the canyon walls beneath vast amounts of overburden.
Academic text (1994) -
The placer mining of tin by small producers became widespread during the 1950s in Rondonia and later near the Tapajós and Xingu rivers in Pará.
Academic text (1992) -
Many small-scale operations in the region focus on placer mining to extract gold from riverbeds.
-
The method of placer mining involves washing sediment to find valuable minerals.
Synonyms
191
2.7
Taking minerals like coal or metal from under the ground
How Large
- Specialized
2
7.7
- Specialized
4
4.4
- Specialized
- Specialized
3
7.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'placer' (accumulation of minerals in riverbeds) combined with 'mining' (extracting minerals) yields 'mining of alluvial deposits.' This is a straightforward noun–noun compound following common cross-linguistic patterns, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer the MWE.
Etymology
Placer mining may come from the Spanish word placer, meaning a sand or gravel bank where heavy gold sinks. It describes washing or digging those river sands to get the gold, so that's why 'placer mining' means 'taking gold and other minerals from loose sand and gravel in riverbeds'.