A dolly pot, also known as a dolly, is a portable tool used for crushing small quantities of gold-bearing rock, by hand, in a process known as dollying.
In principle, a dolly pot is somewhat like a large
mortar and pestle
A mortar and pestle is a set of two simple tools used to prepare ingredients or substances by compression (physics), crushing and shear force, grinding them into a fine Paste (rheology), paste or powder in the kitchen, laboratory, and pharmacy. ...
, but is always made of metal and is intended specifically to crush hard rocks like
quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...
. It is typically flat at the bottom, rather than rounded as in a typical mortar.
19th-century versions were often made of
cast iron
Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...
.
Modern dolly pots are typically fabricated from steel. The place of the pestle is taken by a long heavy steel rod, at one end provided with a stamping surface.
The process of dollying is highly labour-intensive. It involves pulverising the rock, by hand, until the gold separates from the surrounding rock matrix. It typically is used only to test for the presence of gold in samples taken from a
quartz reef.
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...
, 1933,
References
Gold prospecting
Metallic objects
Metalworking hand tools
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