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Due to popular demand the Gold Reaper sluice is back on ebay, check out the reviews..... Happy prospecting. Don

Besides all the beer drinking & playing up I like to make stuff , last year I wanted a hand operated thing that would concentrate down the heavies quick so I could do less panning . First photo is the proto type - Then I fixed up the bugs & changed angles plus fitted an hand mixer on the next model . Works Like this , throw a bucket of water in then the same of material , rock back & forth whilst using the blue handle to stir the stuff up so the heavies drop quick into the bottom trap . After a minute stop and collect the stuff from the trap by undoing the 2 clamps , empty & start again . When you get a bucket full of the heavies run that through so you only have one pan to do I called it the gold pram . Jack .

Seems very well built. Turns rocks to powder in a few seconds. Will be nice for prospecting for sure.

Did some test pans today near some old workings. The gold is small, but every pan looked like this

He has various videos of the design and build in progress. He analysed every square inch for both strength, weight and angle of his design for maxim gold retention. It's a two (tiered 10" + 10") highbanker, also great with sand.

I made this so I could clean up my 5 gal. of concentrates , A little bit slow but does a pretty good job .

First trial run panning with the batea pan. You constantly have to keep the pan moving to allow the gold to drop out the suspension of pan concentrates. If you put in 3 shovel-full amounts, you have to periodically break up the material compacting in the center of the pan until the material is worked down to a more manageable amount. It's fun pan to use. Did I do well? You be the judge. I haven't a clue. I managed to get to the river between showers today. It's kind of nice not hauling around a highbanker and all the other bits of equipment to operate it. The pan is quite large, however, when allowing it's shape, size and weight, it is surprisingly easy to maneuver in the water side to side, back and forth plus circular motion to create a vortex. Hey.....it worked!💓 Took me just under an hour to do 10 pans. I am a newbie and still need to work on my batea skills.

I'm considering a keene mini max. Curious if those who have/had one feel it's worth the $800 it costs. Would love to here your stories and opinions on it.

I have my own Facebook page using drop riffles, keeping me busy. I retired last year, and I found out that after retirement, you are busier then ever. Got my first grandchild on the way. Any how, I started using my square Le Trap gold pan this week, as the creek hasn't enough flow to support a river sluice. I made a short video on how to use the square pan. I hope everyone is doing well and wish you all a great 2025.

I was looking at some claims and noticed there pretty cheap and was thinking about getting one but have never looked for gold before, can anyone give me some advice on what to expect to spend on equipment for a small operation, what would be the best way to go when looking for gold wether it be a smaller sluce box or water dredge, any other info would be much appreciated.

A decent summary of placer gold recovery methods with good illustrations. A good place to start for beginners so pinned here. 5mb pdf download, 29 pages with excellent references. The reference list on page 29 should be followed up on for more detailed information - Google is your friend. https://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/Documents/Publications/Special-Publications/SP_087.pdf CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 CONCENTRATION OF PLACER GOLD ORE 2 SMALL SCALE RECOVERY EQUIPMENT 2 Gold Pan 2 Rocker 3 Construction 3 Assembly 5 Operation 5 Sluices 6 Long Tom 7 Dip-Box 8 Shaking Tables 8 Portable Processing Equipment 10 Amalgamation 10 DRY PLACERS 10 Dry Washers 10 Air Tables (Oliver Gravity Separator) 11 MODERN RECOVERY EQUIPMENT 12 Pinched Sluice Systems 12 Spiral Concentrators 13 Rotating Spirals 15 Helixes 15 Jigs 16 Fine Material Separators 20 Bartles-Mozely Separator 20 Bartles CrossBelt Separator 21 Centrifugal Concentrators 21 Bowls 21 Knelson Concentrator 22 SUMMARY 22 OPERATING MINES 23 Hammonton Dredge 23 Hansen Brothers - Hugh Fisher 25 Bear River 26 Greenhorn Creek 26 TRI-R Engineering - Stinson Mine 27 SELECTED ANNOTATED REFERENCES 29 While this publication does a good job summarizing everything from the gold pan to some pretty sophisticated recovery devices, the one thing missing completely is the gold suction dredge. For that, see my article below on that subject: Suction Gold Dredge Basics For a more in depth look at suction dredges, see Keene’s Suction Dredging - Understanding the Basics

Found this publication recently: “How We Get Gold in California” by William V. Wells (published 2010 by VistaBooks.com). Wells was apparently an original 49er that returned to the California goldfields in 1860. He documents the gold placering equipment and techniques in use in 1849 then again in 1860. Of interest is that both the Long Tom Sluice and Dry Washer were in use in the California Goldfields by 1860. Plus much more.

An article I wrote for a magazine years ago, now on their website for free..... A Beginner’s Guide To Gold Panning

https://www.facebook.com/reel/2124940954527990

My final felt run was completed. After running this years concentrates 7 times, my 7th and last felt run got 0.1 gram of gold. My purpose of this experiment was to see if felt could be used in the final cleanups of concentrations from gold prospecting. I was pleased with the results. Not only will felt bite and hold a lot of gold, but please look at how tiny some of the micro gold it caught. Could felt be used to clean up cons? Absolutely! To remove a good percentage of tiny micro gold? Absolutely! Could it be added as an extention to your sluice? Absolutely! Could it test your tailing for gold loss? Absolutely! After all my concentrates were reduced to -50 mesh, the felt managed to get one gram of gold out of the pre-run 10 gallons of original concentrates. What are your thoughts? Any other uses come to mind for your set-ups? Let me know. Last nights final run.....it still caught gold. I guess you never really get it all. Notice how tiny some of the micro gold is. Here's what half my felt-concentrates looked like.

Picked up some new classifiers from a gentleman up in Cottonwood AZ, Dave Garner is the name of the person, and I will say these things are heavy duty and very well made stainless steel classifiers, they work well with 5 gallon buckets, four different sizes 1/2 inch,3/8 inch, 1/8 inch and 1/16 inch, the 1/16 inch also works great as a bowl to drain water off of spaghetti and salad because it is food grade, a food strainer is what I kept the 1/16 for as I cannot see classifying dirt down that small, I have the Gold Fox Mini Monster with the Mini Trommel that I run material down just for a fun project at home I carry 2 or 3, 5 gallon buckets out with me when I am able to go out and bring it back to my house for days I cannot get out and detect.

Kyle from Utmost Outdoors did an excellent comparison on various cleanup sluices. He sure puts his heart and soul into his work. It is long, but just loaded with good information. Check it out!

Dang it anyways! While doing my final back-panning in my clean-up pan, I discovered a little hungry bead of mercury which ate up some of my flour gold from todays dig. Oh well, at least my ball of mercury amalgam is growing in size. Anyhow, my buddy and I went out to do a little prospecting. I used the mini California drop riffle sluice, and he used his mini Le'Trap. Going to sleep well tonite. \

I have noticed a trend where sluices, highbankers, hoses, batteries, pumps are becoming smaller, lighter, more affordable, more popular, and nearly all manufacturers are offering a new line to include these. At one time, bigger was better. 12" wide, 12 foot long highbankers were promoted as getting it all. And, maybe often times it did. However, the downside was it was heavy, not very transportable and the amount of concentrates to process was incredible. Fast-forward to today. New materials make for very light, more portable equipment, along with smaller pumps. People now realize a 6 or 8 inch sluice works well, especially with new types of riffle and matting systems. Gasoline pumps have often times been replaced using bilge pumps, with new, light weight lithium ion batteries. The final, screened remaining concentrates can be taken home in a plastic bag. The equipment can be transported in a back-pack, a wagon or other light trolley. You can hike into areas now, not available without a boat or roads to get a much higher gold return. With science & technology producing new riffle deigns, resulting in better capture rates, smaller, leaner cheaper just might be a better choice. What are your thoughts?

I lucked out and got to prospect the NSR on March 20.......the first day of spring. I finally got to use the Geo Sluice Again. It's been a while................

Good afternoon, I'm Scott Posey, the Mining Manager at the new AMDS Mining Superstore. I'm a lifelong avid gold dredger and prospector. Our new facility is open now and I hope you will stop by and visit. I am traveling to visit with Mark Keene at Keene Engineering next week. We will be discussing new product development and ideas for the new store. What would you like to see? How about a trommel fed by a mini excavator? Do any of you have a mini excavator, and if so, what is it's capacity? Any questions for Mark in general or other suggestions? I'm really interested in hearing from you. AMDS is becoming the sponsor of this particular forum and I plan to be here regularly. If anyone has questions, well, I am the manager so get a bit busy at time, but please be patient and I will get back to you. Thanks for taking a look at this, and hope to see you soon. Scott Posey, Mining Manager AMDS Mining Superstore 3032 Commercial Drive Anchorage, AK 99501 907-277-1741 scott_posey@akmining.com

Out with my ity bity river sluice today. The river remained frozen due to another recent cold spell. Anyhow, the weather was good, exercise felt great and I am going to sleep well tonite. Check out my slide show from today. I got gold, platinum and a garnet.

I haven't posted here for a while. I started a Face book Le'Trap and drop riffle highbankers and river sluice discussion group last year, so that has been taking up a bit of my time. Anyhow, Steve can probably relate to this. Headed back down to the North Saskatchewan River (Edmonton Alberta) today. I took my favorite drop riffle highbanker, the Geo (geometric) highbanker. Ice had formed along the banks, so I had to dig further out in the current in 2 feet of water at times. After a couple of hours, I started getting cold, so I shut it down and did my one cleanup today. It was above freezing outside, so my equipment did not got seized up from freezing. The electric bilge pump did however run a little bit slower then usual. Over all. it was a successful day. I did get some vitamin "G" today and I will sleep well tonite!

My buddy trout fishes in a little stream that is a mile as the crow flies but 3 miles on foot from the road. An old government document said traces of gold in 1904. He just wants to confirm gold. A speck would have him crowing for longer then i want to think about?. I would think panning would be good enough. It's 28x10 inches. and a few dozen specks in price