New Zealand Gold Prospecting & Metal Detecting Forums Archive

Hi i am fairly new to gold fossicking and have been looking at sluice boxes. I take it that the longer the sluice box the more material it will be capable of processing and therefore catch more gold potentially. Am i correct in saying this any advice would be appreciated.

Hi yes that was one that i have been looking at. Think i will go with that model. Do you classify your material before running it through.

any sluice box will do as long as theres gold where u r looking,moonlight is gd

Have to agree with Big Miner. Here is the one I just finished making. It is based on this youtube design... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qx2qi9_vpc. credit to this user for a great design. mine is made of 5mm ply, a pine fence paling and a few cheap bits and pieces from mitre 10

I changed it up a bit and added a classifier up top instead of at the bottom flair. this works really well, all fine gravels get washed through the top section onto the bottom deck and bigger stones washed straight out the sides. fine gravel gets washed over the ribbed rubber matting and diverted straight into the deep riffles. Water is flowing through the bottom level and pressurizing down the sides of the riffles. It is then forced out the holes in the side of the riffles creating a fluid bed within the riffles. this helps wash out more of the light material, leaving you with a more concentrated gravel to pan in the end. The rubber mat lets me see any gold going into my box and catches really fine stuff.

I took this down to the Waimakariri river recently to test it out in some water current. I cut up a 1/8 oz of very tiny pieces of lead (the size of little gold flakes) and placed them in my bucket mixed up with a quarter bucket of river gravel. after running this through the sluice and panning it out at home, I got all 1/8 oz back in my pan. was cool to see how well it classified the material and how the riffles "boiled" the sand and gravel. considering lead is only half the weight of gold and I lost none must mean my homemade sluice should work well next time over the coast. (lifted up a rock behind the sluice this day to build a little dam and an expensive pair of sunglasses popped out!!!!! probably the only type of gold I will ever find on this side of the southern alps!!!!!!!!)

This took me a few evenings in the man shed to make. cost me about $25.00 to make and weighs in at only 3.5 kg (mark 1 was over twice this weight!)

Like Big Miner said, the local dump shop is great for different types of mesh. para rubber sells the rubber matting and with sell you what ever size you want, even down to a 100mm strip.

I have also made my classifying bucket, my concentrator and a roof box for the car to carry all my fossicking gears!

I only need to pan my material once to remove remaining backsand from gold. It's amazing seeing gold sitting in the sluice that you know you made!

Ok thanks for that guys i purchased a Keene A52 Sluice Box. Mahutaman WOW that looks like a kick ass sluice.

yeah the lighter the better for getting off the beaten track to the good spots. im building a highbanker at the moment but wont be as light weight as your set up its going to be driven by a 1.5 inch pump thats heavy for starters.