How a Sluice Box Works

• A sluice box provides a miniature water channel with riffles that simulate the action of the river. As material flows downstream, heavier material such as gold is dropped whenever the moving water encounters an obstacle which creates an eddy and a momentary backflow. This allows the gold to drop out of the flow.
  
  The regularly spaced riffles on a sluice box perform the same function. So as river-bottom material is dumped into the top of the sluice box, the flow of water will move it down over the riffles. Any gold will drop and be trapped in the miner's moss, that open-weave vinyl carpet that lays in the bottom of the sluice box.
  
  

Sluice Box Placement

• Look for a place in the water to set up your sluice box. The flow through the box can't be too fast or it will carry any gold past the riffles and out the end. If the flow is too slow, other lighter-weight material will drop out and clog the bottom of the sluice box, allowing any subsequent gold to be washed out of the box.
  
  Ideally, you want a 1-inch drop per foot of sluice box length. Thus, if your sluice box is 3 feet long, you'll want a 3-inch drop from the upstream end of the sluice box to the downstream end. Position larger rocks beneath the sluice box to steady it and provide the correct rise needed. Finally place a heavy stone across the sluice box to hold it steady so it doesn't tip over.
  
  

Feeding the Sluice Box

• Using a Gold Pan
  
  Now you can dig up material from likely places in the riverbed and place it in a bucket to transport it to the sluice box. Hopefully, you will have already spot-panned for gold by using your gold pan to process some material from the stream bed. Hopefully this has helped you to identify promising areas in the stream where gold might be found.
  
  Slowly feed the material into the top of the sluice box, taking care to pick out any larger stones, bits of gravel or occasional nuggets. Let the natural flow of the stream move the material down over the riffles. It's best to use some kind of scoop to transfer the material from the bucket to the sluice box, to avoid an accidental overload and potential loss of gold.
  
  

Getting the Gold

• Once you've run enough material through, it's time to carefully take the sluice box out of the river and see how much gold you've captured. Once you get the sluice box to your processing area, set the end of the sluice box in your cleaning tub. Look for any visible nuggets, then carefully open the sluice box and fold the miner's moss or carpet into the tub. Lastly pour water over the bottom of the sluice box to wash any remaining material into the tub.
  
  Now, you just need to process what you've gathered using a gold pan.