How to Use a Sluice

Gold in the sluice

The sluice box is a piece of mechanical engineering that changed the way the world prospected for precious metals. Individual prospectors who search for gold in the American outdoors do most sluicing today. Water from the stream channels through the sluice to separate gold from other soil and debris in the water. Using a sluice can seem tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it you will be able to sift through a lot of material in a short amount of time.

Things You'll Need

• Sluice box Bucket Shovel

Instructions

How to Use a Sluice

1. Calculate the slope that will be required for your particular sluice. The standard calculation is to drop the elevation by 1 inch for every foot of sluice. For example, if your sluice box is 2 feet long, you will drop the elevation by 2 inches. This means that the top of the box (upstream) will be positioned slightly higher than the end of the box (downstream).

2. Find a good location in the stream to set up the sluice. This is the most difficult part of using a sluice. Look for a shallow area with plenty of water flow. It is helpful if there are rocks in the area that can be used to adjust the height of your sluice. Position the sluice box so that water flows into the mouth of the channel and over the riffles as it flows downward, toward the end of the box.

3. Gather your concentrates from the area you suspect to contain gold or other precious metals. Use a shovel to fill a bucket with soil, carefully picking away any large rocks as you dig. Note that your dig site may not be situated next to your sluice, since the sluice requires just the right location to operate.

4. Slowly shake the contents of the bucket into the top of the sluice. Avoid dumping the full load at once. Gradually shake the contents into the water and let the stream carry them away. Gold, pebbles and other heavy elements will be trapped in the riffles of the sluice, while dirt and loose debris will wash away.

5. Inspect the sluice. After each bucket of soil has been processed through the sluice, analyze the riffles carefully. Use tweezers and store any gold in a plastic vial.

Tips & Warnings

• If black sandy material settles in the riffles, save this to pan at a later date, since it may contain fine gold grains.

References

• Sluicing Basics

Resources

• Sluicing for Gold