How to Build Your Own Gold Sluice with Plans

A sluice box is used to separate gold from gravel and clay, using a stream of water. Requiring only inexpensive materials, and fairly easy to make, the sluice is one of the most useful pieces of equipment available to amateur gold prospectors.

Difficulty:

Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Wood planks or aluminum sheets
• Nails (for wood) or aluminum bolts
• Steel or wooden slats
• Steel mesh
• Dark-colored ribber matting or miner's moss

1. Use wood, aluminum, or plastic to make your sluice box. Aluminum is the best material, because it is very light and durable. Wood can get waterlogged and heavy; plastic can be hard to work; steel or iron will eventually rust.

2. Construct the sluice floor and walls by folding, bending, assembling, or welding your primary material in the shape of a long, flat chute. The exact dimensions are up to you, but ideally the sluice should be about 16 inches wide, up to a foot deep, and five or six feet long. There should be no junctions along the floor. The top end of the sluice should flare out; this is the area into which you will shovel sand and gravel from the streambed.

3. Place the riffles on the floor of the sluice, starting about a foot below the top end. The riffles can be made of steel or wooden slats cut to the width of the sluice and placed across the channel every six inches. Riffles can also be assembled out of steel slats linked to diamond-cut steel mesh, shaped to span the width of the sluice. When placed in the stream, at a slight downward angle, the water will flow over the riffles, the riffles will create a back-flowing eddy in the water, and the heavier material will be caught in the riffles or deposited into the bottom of the sluice. The riffles should be welded or nailed together into a single unit, for ease of removal and cleaning. When in place, they must be secured to the floor and walls so the riffles don't move around or slide out of the sluice.

4. Add dark-colored rubber matting to the floor of the sluice. The dark color allows you to identify gold nuggets. To catch the smaller flakes and gold dust, you can optionally line the bottom of the sluice with "miner's moss." This is a thick mesh made out of vinyl fibers. After sluicing, the mesh is cleaned over a fine screen to separate out any small gold particles.

Tips & Warnings

• Experiment with the angle of your sluice box in the stream. Each stream is different, and the correct angle varies with the weight and density of your gravel.

• A sluice box stand can help you get the correct angle over any kind of terrain. These are best purchased ready-made.

• Always make sure you are prospecting where this activity is allowed. Heed any and all trespassing warnings. Check with the authorities on the status of public lands, and request permission of property owners if necessary.

References

• GoldFeverProspecting.com: Sluicing