In order for the sluice box to work properly the miner will need to place the sluice box in the stream at the proper angle. There needs to be 1 inch of drop for every foot of sluice box. This angle will help the tailings to move down the sluice box. It is also the proper angle for the gold to settle into the riffle trays. The 45 inch sluice box requires almost 4 inches of drop between the flare and the end of the riffle tray.

If the miner is working a shallow or slow moving creek. It may be necessary to build a small wing dam on each side of the sluice box’s flare section. This will help to funnel more water down the sluice box. It is also helpful if a large flat rock is placed on the sluice box to hold it in place. This is mandatory in a swift stream or river.

2. Classification

It is important to classify the material before placing it into the sluice box. The recommend classification is ½ inch. The classification process eliminates large non-barring rocks and dirt that can clog the sluice box’s riffle tray and thus reduce the sluice box’s efficiency. Large rocks creates eddies in the sluice box that may cause the miner to loose paying material. It may also load the riffle tray with large rocks that will prevent the gold from settling to the bottom of the sluice and getting washed out. This can all be prevented by classifying the material first.

To classify the gold barring material, first place a ½ inch screen over a five gallon bucket. A miner can purchase a screen like this at any gold prospecting store or just make a screen out of ½inch wire cloth. Check this website’s picture section for an example of this type of homemade screen. Then simply shovel the mining material into the five gallon bucket. Shake the screen as you go to get the material to settle into the bucket. Check the screen prior to discarding the rocks for large gold nuggets or quarts rocks with gold attached. At times you may want to wash the material with a bucket of water. Don’t worry about overflowing the material bucket with water, as all the rocks and gold will settle into the bottom of the bucket. Once the bucket is filled the miner is ready to place the material into the sluice box.

3. Washing the material

After classifying the material, the miner is ready to place the material into the sluice box for washing. This part of the operation takes a little discipline. It is very tempting to just dump the whole bucket into the sluice box and go for another bucket of material. This will however overload the sluice box and the miner will loose gold. The paying material will skip over the overloaded riffle tray and out the end of the sluice box. Do not overload the sluice box.

After finding a comfortable place to sit, slowly place one handful size scoop into the top of the flare section of the sluice box. The flowing water should start to wash the material down the sluice box and over the riffles. The miner should see the lighter material washing down the sluice box and out the end. The heavier material will get caught behind the riffles. The riffles cause eddies in the sluice box which catches the heavy particles. The miner can see the heavy particles vibrating behind each riffle. It is this vibrating action that helps sort the river bottom material from the gold. If the miner doesn’t see this happening, the miner may need to readjust the sluice box to make this happen.

If the sluice box becomes overloaded, simply rake the box with your hand. Start from the top of the box, and work to the bottom of the box to clear the riffle tray. Avoid raking the material side to side as this may disrupt the natural classification process.

Continue until the bucket is empty.

Mining tip: Prior to prospecting, paint 5 lead fishing weights bright red. Toss these weights into the bucket of material prior to adding the material to the sluice. Since gold is twice the weight of lead, and lead is about twice the weight of river bottom material, the lead sinkers should show up in your sluice box. This is a good way of testing your angle of your sluice box. At the end of the bucket you should still have five lead fishing weights. If you don’t, this could mean that the angle of the sluice box is too steep and you should reduce the angle of the sluice box in the stream so not loose any gold.

4. Clean up

After working for about 1 hour, it is time to “Clean up”. “Clean up” is the final process of this operation. Remove the entire sluice box from the stream. Be extremely careful not loose any material from the sluice box. The material left in the sluice box at this point will contain the gold. Check the top of the sluice box for gold nuggets. Gold nuggets will collect at the top of the sluice box. Pick these out at this time. Unbuckle the clips at the end of the sluice box. Open the riffle tray and remove the expanded metal and carpet at the bottom of the sluice box. Roll the carpet and place it into the 5 gallon bucket that you used to gather material earlier. Wash the rest of the sluice box, removing all the remaining material into the 5 gallon bucket. Be careful at this point not to loose any material as this material is the “Good Stuff”.

Wash the rolled up carpet in the 5 gallon bucket. If your material holds fine gold particles, the carpet will catch these particles. Wash the carpet until all the river material is cleaned from the carpet. It may be necessary to stretch the carpet with your hands to get the fine particles out. Remove the carpet from the 5 gallon bucket and re-assemble the sluice box. If you are working with a partner, you may want to place the sluice box back in the steam and get it ready for the next bucket of material at this time.

Now take the 5 gallon bucket with the concentrated material and dump the material into a gold pan. Then pan out the remaining material. Use the gold pan in the standard method.