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How to Make a Permanent Gold Sluice

A gold sluice is a piece of equipment that is used to sift for gold with the use of water. It is one of the oldest ways to extract gold from a mixture of rock particles and debris. Some gold sluices are made up of wood while others are made up of metal. The weight and size of the gold sluice depends on how much material you need to sift through it and whether you are building a permanent or temporary structure.

Things You'll Need

Several pieces of wood board
Nails
Hammer
Garden hose and water
Cinder blocks
Bucket

Instructions

- 1
  Decide on the size of the gold sluice that you want to create. A good size for a permanent fixture is about 4 feet long.
- 2
  Create the box. Using the wood, hammer the box together. It should be about 4 feet long with an 18 inch wide bottom and the sides should be about 6 inches high.
- 3
  Layer the bottom of the sluice box with some foam rubber matting. On top of this put some miner's moss or a piece of door mat will also work. The miner's moss can be purchased at a prospector's store for about $10 to $15.
- 4
  Place a piece of roofing material towards the bottom half of the sluice box. This should be slanted at a 45 degree angle to help catch the gold and larger pieces of sediment.
- 5
  Lift the sluice box off the ground and angle it at 45 degrees. You can use some cinder blocks or a few pieces of wood to do this. Make sure that the box is properly balanced so that it will not fall over. Place a bucket at the bottom of the box to catch the water.

Rocks & Minerals