Few hours sluicing today

[BoydWilliam]

I had a few hours off today and took my sluice to a local stream near me on a mates private property.
I put 4 large buckets of sieved material down the sluice, but it took quite some time as the riffles weren't clearing very quickly.
Im still only very amateur at this, so maybe i didn't have the sluice set up correctly.
Whilst panning the material from the sluice, i found a lot of black sand. This is an encouraging sign isnt it?
Unfortunately no gold today, just a bit sunburnt! Had a great time, and may return sometime soon!!
Ive attached a few pics

 

[headbut]

Hi Boydwilliam , I am certainly no expert , but it looks like your sluice is not angled at all , but laying on the bottom , would that be right ?

 

[headbut]

Keeping in mind the angle will differ as the current is stronger or weaker

Cheers Paul

 

[headbut]

Also judging by the size of the "mouth" of the sluice , you would need sufficient current to properly process material , or more angle or both

 

[BoydWilliam]

Hi Paul,
Yeah it was just laying on the bottom, perhaps not enough angle.
Im also thinking that maybe the waterflow thru the sluice wasnt really strong enough.
Struggled to find a half decent spot to put it in as we havent had a heap of rain up this way lately

 

[Nugget]

Water flow and angle is crucial to successful sluicing. I'd definitely be looking around for another spot with better water flow (or buying a smaller / narrower sluice) then having a play around with the angle to get those riffles clearing out a little more. It's all a matter of having a play around until you get it right.

The black sand is a good indicator but not a guarantee that gold is present. Has there previously been any gold found in the area?

 

[Twapster]

You don't appear to be in a gold location. Even 1 bucket should have yielded something.

 

[BoydWilliam]

Hi Nugget,
Yes back in the gold rush days a lot of gold was found around here.
This property has been in my friends family for over 100 years, so it wouldn't have been touched for a long time.
I was even digging up broken green glass down 2 foot in the ground, obviously an old bottle from years ago!
The sluice i have is a Yellow Jobe 45 inch, so maybe i need a smaller one for this water

 

[elbowgrease]

Hi Paul,
Yeah it was just laying on the bottom, perhaps not enough angle.
Im also thinking that maybe the waterflow thru the sluice wasnt really strong enough.
Struggled to find a half decent spot to put it in as we havent had a heap of rain up this way lately

Headbut is spot on, having the sluice laying flat will massively affect the sluices ability to clear material that you put through it.

By increasing the angle on the sluice you will effectively use gravity (the amount of drop) to assist in increasing the water velocity. Ideally if you can create a wing dam across the creek you can achieve much better flow by forcing a large volume of water into a narrow gap and at the same time creating a drop in the water level.

I've just dodged up a quick picture of a possible variation of setting up a wing dam. Even if the creek you are digging in isn't showing any color, it will still provide you with a good place to test setting up your sluice, being able to tinker with it, and getting the setup spot on!

just a quick edit: from the look of the photos you posted of the creek, the flow and water volume looks more than adequate for the size of sluice you are using, so I wouldn't go shopping for a smaller or narrower sluice just yet. its pretty rare to be able to just plonk your sluice into the water and have it run like a dream, one of my high school teachers taught me the six p's, prior preparation prevents piss poor performance which definitely applies here too! the time you spend at the start getting your sluice running right is worth ten times that later on when you can process far more material, far quicker and efficiently.

Cheers
Adam

 

[BoydWilliam]

Cheers Adam thanks for the info!
I'll probably head back out there sometime soon and put your advice to work!
Thanks again!

 

[headbut]

Keep at it mate , if the property is as you say , you should find something very soon

Cheers Paul

 

[headbut]

Sample pan , look for any crevices or drop out zones on inside bends , sample pan 1st to see if any gold there .

Also your pan load of black sand in your photo is not empty enough to see if any gold there. If the gold is fine , it will shift under & move with the black sand.

 

[BoydWilliam]

Cheers Paul, yeah i stopped panning and took that pic before i was finished.
Plenty of black sand but no gold yet. I wont throw in the towel yet, ill be back there

 

[Keen Ken]

The water flow looks ok to me.

I have been told and have found that it is best to find somewhere the water goes over some rocks or build a small barrage of stones to raise the height of the water going through the flared end.

Do some test pans first, find a "pay streak", inside bends, exposed bed rock crevices, behind and in front of large boulders are the usual spots to test pan.

You need to keep the bottom of the sluice above the lower water level so as to not create any backwash.

A drop of about 1" in 1 foot (25mm in 300mm) over the length of the sluice is good gradient to start with.(about 75mm for a 1meter box)

A depth of water about 10mm over the inlet end should be good to start you off, you can adjust the flow by lowering or raising the flared end.

Works for me, there are plenty of you tube videos on sluicing. Some are rubbish some are good.