A streamwork is an open-air excavation site where miners wash gravels and sands to recover heavy minerals like tin ore or gold. Workers divert water through channels and sluices to separate the valuable ore from lighter waste rock. These operations rely on natural gravity separation and require a steady water supply to function.
Heard on the job
We need to clear the upper channel before the streamwork floods from the spring melt.
Insider tip
Historic tin streamworks in Cornwall often left distinct ridges of waste rock along valley floors.
Also heard as
- streamworks
- stream-work