Gold Sluices for Sale
One of the most practical methods of gold prospecting and recovery involves the use of a piece of equipment that has been in use for over a hundred years. One of the very best gold gathering devices on the market today is still the Hand Sluice.
Sluice boxes were once built at the location of the mining site from the material that were on hand such as heavy wood planks and logs. Often the river current was diverted through the sluices so that gold-bearing gravels could be processed far quicker than using the laborious "hand panning" method. The old sluice boxes were lined with raised obstructions that were placed in a vertical position to the flow of the current. (These obstructions were later referred to as riffles)
When the gold-laden gavels were dumped into the upper end of the sluice, the flow of water carried the material down the length of the box. The lighter gavels (tailings) would be carried in suspension down the entire length of the sluice and then discharged. The heavier material (such as gold, platinum metals and black sands), would quickly drop to the bottom of the box, where they became entrapped by the riffles. Once the riffles collected a large quantity of concentrated black sand, a "cleanup" was implemented. The flow of water through the sluice would be diminished by a type of water gate. Then the riffles would be removed, allowing access to the heavier materials, which had collected during the "run." This remaining material or concentrate often contained all the values amounting to many tons of gravel which had to be tediously panned.
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