New Sluicer here.

[John4787]

G’day all ,I’m a retired bloke who has sold his hobby boat and wants to enter the wild wonderful world of sluicing in Victoria. Always fascinated with the old blokes trudging up the highway from Melbourne to the Diggings in the 1860’s trying to make their fortune . Decided on sluicing over detecting mainly for the initial investment ! I’ll trawl thru the site and hope to glean some good advice. Good luck in your venture people !

 

[Moneybox]

G’day all ,I’m a retired bloke who has sold his hobby boat and wants to enter the wild wonderful world of sluicing in Victoria. Always fascinated with the old blokes trudging up the highway from Melbourne to the Diggings in the 1860’s trying to make their fortune . Decided on sluicing over detecting mainly for the initial investment ! I’ll trawl thru the site and hope to glean some good advice. Good luck in your venture people !

Prospecting for gold can be an enjoyable hobby as long as you treat it as such. Some people go out with great expectations and come home very disappointed. Sometimes the best part of a prospecting trip is the journey you take, not to gold you find. I wish we could go sluicing in the west but I'm told you need water

 

[casper]

Welcome John,
I cannot remember a sluicing trip where I did not have a show of gold in the pan after cleanup - I cannot say the same regarding my detecting trips.

Good Luck

 

[Grey Panner]

Prospecting for gold can be an enjoyable hobby as long as you treat it as such. Some people go out with great expectations and come home very disappointed. Sometimes the best part of a prospecting trip is the journey you take, not to gold you find. I wish we could go sluicing in the west but I'm told you need water

What you need is a big tub in which you can stand a small two-stage sluice box. You then need several jerrycans of water. You fill the tub, collect your paydirt feed it, in small amounts, into the sluice. You can then ladle water from the tub into the sluice. A two or three litre milk carton cut down but with the handle still attached makes an excellent bailer.
Alternately you can put a small marine bilge pump in the tub and power it with a small battery that you keep charged with a solar panel. A constant stream of water can then be recycled down the sluice box. This may not always be legal, but a friendly mining inspector contacted the Chief Mining Warden in Perth and obtained permission for us to run this small-scale contraption.
The major problem is getting rid of the tailings. It is necessary to make very frequent stops to remove the worked gravel from the tub.
You will obviously lose water during this process and will need to have plenty more jerry cans on hand.
With clean gravel I have been able to work all day with 5 or 6 jerry cans of water. With dirtier gravel I have had to use up to 12 jerry cans. Obviously you need
a water source somewhere within range and substantial transport capacity. While often. all we get is a bit of colour, we sometimes collect a gram or two. The reward is in the journey not the destination.

 

[Moneybox]

What you need is a big tub in which you can stand a small two-stage sluice box. You then need several jerrycans of water. You fill the tub, collect your paydirt feed it, in small amounts, into the sluice. You can then ladle water from the tub into the sluice. A two or three litre milk carton cut down but with the handle still attached makes an excellent bailer.
Alternately you can put a small marine bilge pump in the tub and power it with a small battery that you keep charged with a solar panel. A constant stream of water can then be recycled down the sluice box. This may not always be legal, but a friendly mining inspector contacted the Chief Mining Warden in Perth and obtained permission for us to run this small-scale contraption.
The major problem is getting rid of the tailings. It is necessary to make very frequent stops to remove the worked gravel from the tub.
You will obviously lose water during this process and will need to have plenty more jerry cans on hand.
With clean gravel I have been able to work all day with 5 or 6 jerry cans of water. With dirtier gravel I have had to use up to 12 jerry cans. Obviously you need
a water source somewhere within range and substantial transport capacity. While often. all we get is a bit of colour, we sometimes collect a gram or two. The reward is in the journey not the destination.

I intend to do something like this on a bit bigger scale. I'm going to set up the cone because I think it's more efficient than a sluice although I may run the output of the cone over the sluice.

My cone is a little bigger than this one and I'm looking at a light weight trommel that I might be able to use to rescue some of my water by removing the biggest of the solids.



The difficult part is setting it up to get a flow from one device to the next. I've just ordered spray nozzles and valves from China. I know I should buy local but sometimes you get stung. On Friday I bought some little 6mm brass hose barbs from Perth, I should have checked the price but I didn't until I was home. I paid $22.02 each and the same articles from China are $1.73 each. I'm now $40 out of pocket for two items that weigh a few grams each.

 

[Grey Panner]

Hi Moneybox,
You have some interesting equipment there and will obviously need more than a few jerrycans of water to operate it. I have seen plants that size and bigger operating in the East Kimberly but only by miners with their own leases and a bore providing a constant flow of water. Serious gold recovery in that area requires the processing of many tonnes of material. I suspect that that will be true of most areas. As you said in your earlier post, water will be the problem but access will also be problematic.
You are operating well above my league so I will bid you adieu and wish you well.
Grey Panner