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Sluice boxes: where to buy

A sluice box is the simplest machine for washing more gravel than a pan can handle, and it needs no engine: you set it in the creek and the current does the work. You shovel gravel in at the head, the water carries it down the open trough, and the riffles across the floor create small eddies where the heavy gold drops out while light sand and pebbles wash away. Under the riffles, most modern boxes have a mat, such as miner's moss or ribbed V-matting, that holds the fine gold.

Riffles come in several styles, such as expanded metal, Hungarian riffles and drop riffles cut into the floor, and builders mix them to suit fine or coarse gold. The box sits at a gentle slope, usually somewhere between one and two inches of drop for each foot of length, and you adjust slope and water until the gravel keeps moving without white water: too slow and the riffles pack with sand and stop catching anything, too fast and fine gold washes straight through.

A sluice has no hopper and no pump, so it only works where the creek has enough current, and it runs best on gravel screened beforehand, usually to 1/4 or 1/2 inch. When black sand builds up behind the riffles, it is time to clean up and pan out what the box caught. Sluices are made in aluminum, steel and plastic, and many come from small shops whose builders can tell you which riffles and mats suit your gold.

4 shops across the US that sell sluice boxes, 1 of them building their own. Each one links to its own website, so you can compare them one by one.

• RDH Prospecting

  Builder · Online or by order · Mesa, Arizona · Ships nationwide

  Makes: 58 Highbanker; 6-inch and 10-inch power sluice setups

  Family business building highbankers and 6- and 10-inch power sluices

  Family business in the Mesa area that builds highbankers and power sluices in the USA, sold directly and through Arizona prospecting stores such as A & B Prospecting.

  Also sells: Highbankers & power sluices · Dredges & parts

  rdh-prospecting.com ↗Eureka listing →

• A & B Prospecting Supplies (Mesa)

  Dealer · Storefront · Mesa, Arizona · Ships nationwide

  Prospecting store since 1979: Minelab, Garrett, Fisher, Keene, Falcon

  Prospecting supply store in Mesa and one of the best known in Arizona, listed by ICMJ as a trusted vendor. It sells Minelab, Garrett, Fisher and Falcon metal detectors; drywashers, sluices, highbankers and recirculating units; dredges, pumps and parts; pans, classifiers and fine-gold concentrators; hand tools, rock crushers, books and beginner kits; and assay and refining supplies such as furnaces, chemicals and labware. A second store is in Prescott Valley.

  Also sells: Metal detectors · Gold pans & classifiers · Highbankers & power sluices · Dredges & parts · Drywashers · Picks, shovels & hand tools · Fine gold recovery · Assay & refining supplies

  abprospecting.com ↗Eureka listing →

• A & B Prospecting Supplies (Prescott Valley)

  Dealer · Storefront · Prescott Valley, Arizona · Ships nationwide

  A&B's second store, a short drive from Lynx Creek

  Second store of A & B Prospecting Supplies, in Prescott Valley in the gold country of central Arizona, with the same range as the Mesa store: metal detectors, drywashers, sluices, highbankers, dredge parts, pans and classifiers, fine-gold concentrators, hand tools and assay supplies.

  Also sells: Metal detectors · Gold pans & classifiers · Highbankers & power sluices · Dredges & parts · Drywashers · Picks, shovels & hand tools · Fine gold recovery · Assay & refining supplies

  abprospecting.com ↗Eureka listing →

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