Prospecting for Gold

Library and Archives Canada: 16mm, 28mm, 35mm, VHS, digibeta.
"Three-part film showing sequences on exploration, mining, and metallurgy. Part I shows: a man digging for gold in open country, stopping to wipe his brow; Northern Ontario lake and forest with two gold prospectors in a canoe approaching the beach, alighting from the canoe and unloading their supplies, and setting up camp; one prospector hauls the canoe onto the beach and turns it upside down; a man cuts balsam boughs to use as a mattress; two men pitch a tent; prospectors cooking over an open fire and eating outside their tent; prospectors working on a gold vein, a bearded man breaking rocks with a hammer; prospector outside a log cabin crushing quartz in a mortar with gold dust being sorted over a can; gold dust being washed in a pan; a man staking a 'discovery post', the inscription on the post says 'Discovery Post' and shows the names of the prospectors and the date; two prospectors drive the 'discovery post' into the ground. Part II continues with a repeat of the last two shots in Part I (close-up of two prospectors staking discovery post), medium shots of prospectors driving stake posts in to the ground, exterior shot of Claim Office, sign outside identifying it as Mininng Recording Office, and prospector entering office, extreme close-ups of prospector handing claim to a clerk, prospector and clerk looking at a map, girl typing in the background and clerk handing prospector licence certificate; extreme close-ups of Miner's Certificate and Claim, headed with the Ontario Coat of Arms, showing signature and other details, medium shot of prospectors working on a gold vein, close-up of approximately 10 men digging a trench along the vein, various shots of men clearing moss and vegetation in preparation for rock blasting, extreme close-up of prospector examining broken quartz rock with a magnifying glass, close-up of two men working on a portable forge near their claim area, sharpening drills and doing other tasks, close-up of prospectors relaxing near fire and tent during the evening, and one of them smoking a pipe, and medium shot of prospectors packing their tents and supplies in preparation for moving on. Part III shows continuation of shot from Part II. After sequences on mining itself, the following shots are: prospectors dousing a camp fire, hoisting haversacks on their backs, getting into a canoe, and rowing away; samples being crushed for assay; gold dust being weighed on a small scale and flux being added to the gold; pots being placed in muffle furnace; pots being removed from the furnace and gold being poured into forms; after cooling, slag being chipped off leaving lead containing gold and silver; shots of lead being eliminated, leaving the gold and silver and these being separated by parting (dissolving the silver in acid and leaving the gold); and finally, the gold being weighed."