Sluice Boxes in Gold Mining

Applying a sluice box to extract gold from placer deposits has been a popular apply in small-scale mining throughout history to the modern day. Sluice boxes were developed versions of the Long Tom. A number of sluice boxes were often connected into a long line, and big crews of miners were applied. A sluice box is essentially a man-made channel with riffles set in the bottom. The riffles are designed to create dead zones in the current to admit gold to drop out of suspension. The box is placed in the stream (stream of the river) to channel water flow. Ground sluicing was a variant of this practice.in the stream of the river would be diverted into trenches and would soften the gold-bearing dirt and rock. The miners would loosen the dirt and rocks with picks and let water and gravity to carry the material down to a sluice box. Lighter material flows out of the box as tailings. in larger commercial placer mining processes employ screening plants or trommels to take alluvial materials such as gravel and boulders before concentrating in a sluice box. These activity typically include diesel-powered earth moving equipment in mining equipment such as rock trucks, wheel loaders, bulldozers, and excavators.