The Berdan Pan was a well known amalgamating machine used in the Dolgellau
Gold Belt from the 1850's.There is a fine description and drawing of a
Berdan Pan in "The Gold Mines of Merioneth" by G.W.Hall who also tells us
that these machines were in use in California upto the 1960's.
Damian McCurdy
----- Original Message -----
From: Newman, Phil <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2002 12:29 PM
Subject: Gold from Mundic!
> > At a copper mine in Devon that I'm currently writing up (Druid), there
was
> > much excitement in the 1850s at shareholders' meetings regarding
> > experiments by an Australian called Calvert into extracting Gold from
the
> > gossans and mundic deposits in the mine using Berdan's 'gold
amalgamating
> > machine'. Can anyone tell me more about this apparatus? Did it actually
> > work for example? I suspect in this case it was just another
transparent
> > attempt to rally the interest of shareholders in an unpromising mine
where
> > result were slow in coming, but its possible that Calvert's intentions
> > were genuine.
> >
> > Many thanks
> >
> > Phil Newman
> > English Heritage, Exeter
> >
> >
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