RDH Prospecting mini Sluice

Specs:    Size is 12"L x 3" W x 1 inch high sides. It weighs 1 lbs. It has black ribbed matting. The box is a strong .063 gauge 5052 aircraft aluminum.

    I saw this on the internet and thought I'd give it a try (14.95 +10.00 S/H). Tried several ways to setup in the kitchen sink until I found one that worked. There was just one problem. Towards the upper left in the stock photo you can see a silvery line towards the end of the sluice. This is the sealant they used to attach the mat. On mine the sealant covered the ribs for 1/8-1/4" down both sides. It appears to be highly hydrophobic because try as I could the water would not run over the full riffle without turning the faucet on full blast. The water tended to stay 1/2" away from each side, sometimes narrower.

   Tried using it with some gold-lacking concentrate. Captured black sand but a lot swept thru too. Took the sluice to work and during my breaks took the mat out and cleaned off the silvery sealant. Lots of scraping then using adhesive remover. When I got home I taped up the sides like I saw on the Gold Hog videos and used a piece of duct tape to seal of the top end and hold it down. Works like a charm now. I salted about 3 tablespoons of my dirt with small stuff to -100. Sluice caught all of it but 2 of the -100 pieces went all the way to the last 3 riffles.

   Here's my setup: plastic bin, stacked cups for sluice angle, pickup magnet to hold sluice against sink, crucible to provide better water flow from faucet.

It works. Fun to play around with and I'll eventually make a stand and little recirculating system out of it. Need to play around with the water flow and angle to see if I can't keep all the gold higher.

    Here are 2 pictures of the gold capture. I made a short video I'll be loading to YouTube but am having trouble getting it off my phone at the moment.

While not practical for any kind of volume it's fun to play with and could be used as a teaching/demonstration tool easily. The only gripe I had was the adhesive overflow onto the riffles affecting the water flow. So, if you get antsy and are stuck inside - and the wife won't let you setup a mini sluice - this will fit inside your sink.

Dave Eddy