In my first installment of this prospecting series, which you can read here, we covered essential equipment and where best to dig. In your search for the precious metal, you are looking for free gold that has been moved from its original deposit and washed down into streams through erosion. I pointed out that not all gold lies in the current streambed but that you may discover it in “ancient” streambeds—old riverbeds that are now dry. Working this ground requires a lot of hard work to move gravel from the ancient streambed to the current stream to wash, or it requires different equipment. Here, we’ll go over some additional prospecting equipment and tools to unearth gold and wash gravels in those old, dry deposits.
Modern prospecting equipment
In addition to my old-school prospecting kit, which includes a couple of different sizes of the essential gold pan, a trowel, and a hand shovel, I carry two pieces of modern prospecting equipment: A Garrett Pro-Pointer, and a Grizzly Sluice. If my trip involves processing dry gravels at a distance from the stream bed, I might include a dry washer or ”highbanker” on the equipment list.
Pro-Pointer
The Pro-Pointer is an invaluable piece of small, compact equipment that can save hours of hard work. This mini gold nugget detector operates on a single 9-volt battery. It is handy for detecting gold in bedrock cracks (aka “crevicing”) and detecting the presence of gold among the rocks and crevices underwater in an active streambed. The Pro-Pointer is waterproof to a depth of twenty feet.
By its accuracy, the Pro-Pointer saves you the trouble of painstakingly scratching out every crevice in the bedrock at the bottom of an ancient streambed or beneath the surface of a flowing stream and allows you to concentrate on only those cracks and crevices that contain the yellow metal. If you detect gold in a notch or beneath larger rocks, you can dig out the gravel and pan it if the gold is not visible while crevicing. You can learn all about the capabilities and use of the Pro-Pointer with a YouTube video.
Grizzly Sluice
The Grizzly Sluice is an upright sluice box reminiscent of old-fashioned “49er” rocker boxes. The mini sluice can be set up on or near a stream and fed with your prospect gravel. Unlike a conventional sluice box, such as the popular A21 Mini Sluice, the Grizzly does not have to be immersed in the water or set at a precise angle to optimize water flow for processing gravels.
Highbanker
The highbanker is a sluice box with a motorized agitator attached to separate gold and other high-value materials from dry gravel when working near the stream is impossible. The highbanker is a little more expensive and cumbersome piece of equipment that you will only need if you discover a promising gold deposit on high, dry ground, such as one of those ancient streams mentioned earlier.
A wide array of more sophisticated high-tech equipment is available on the market, including sensitive (and pricey) metal detectors, floating dredges, automated gold pans, etc. For purposes of this article series, we are focusing on the essential equipment necessary to make your RV travel prospecting activity simple, fun, and rewarding.
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Years ago my father in law and I bought an old time dry sluice. It was huge and one man could not handle it. It’s great to see the newer style more portable. In our early years my wife and I had a home made 4” dredge that was great fun and back then we could make a $100 a day using it in the creeks of California. Load the kids and gear up and camp out on a creek in the mountains while having fun and making close to what our jobs paid a day back then. The fun of finding color was real fun for both of us. Thanks for the memories and the update on equipment.
My dad and a jeweler friend were partners in a old gold mine in southern Oregon they found while bear hunting in the 60’s ..us kids were in our teens so we did the wheel barrel work taking the mine dirt out after a blast of dynamite….still smell it…summer work on long weekends….they did well….what memories…..don’t like shaft work so only do stream panning…..just fun to do it…Great memories…
To get really good deals on prospecting equipment of all sorts at discounted prices, the place to go is Pro Music Shop in Fairbanks Alaska.
Prospecting Equipment | Pro Music (promusicalaska.com)
I’ll have to look into it …✌️