Daily Life in China                  

Magnetite:

Villagers are so cash strapped they'll do just about anyting for money.  Here is anything.  These boys are fishing with magnets for magnetite. Magnatite is a type of iron and could be smelted but is too valuable. It's used as a processing aid to refine other metals and minerals.

Below is the magenetic head.  It's pretty heavy.

The gleenings are scrapped off and when they get a boat load it will be sold of to a processing plant and there are plenty in Hubei and Hunan and many other provinces.

Hand processing is slow so machines do the real processing. They are seen on just about every river I've been to.  These machines with slight modification can process for magnetite, sand, and various size rocks.  They line up across a river and are held in place by a stake driven into the river at the back.  As they process the slowly winch their toward the stake grinding up the complete river bed without remorse.  Each unit dumps into a small boat which is brought to a riverside processing plant (shown below).

The big drum is magnatized and collects the fine magnetite.  There's a blade at the back which wipes off the magnetite stuck to drum.  It falls off into a trough into the waiting small boat.

Riverside processing plant for magnetite.  The round drum to the left crushes the sand and magnetite.  The output is directed to the final drum which is magnatized and collects the magnetite.  The rest flows with the water back to the river.

Output of the plant goes back into the river.

Small one and two man mechanized stations also gleen for magnetite. A motor driven unit sucks up water to the right and washes the magnetite laden sand.  There's a magnetic head there to collet the magnetite as it washes over the head.