Contact Home Links Research Center Stories Expeditions Placer Locations Safety Online Forum Gold Gallery Video_Archive Gold and Pyrites Rocks-Minerals-Gold Precious Metals Prices Getting Started Legal Issues - Mining Law GPS Units Gold_Rush! Extractive Metallurgy Arizona Ghost Towns Search Engine Cool Tools Hard Rock/Open Pit Mines De Re Metallica ATVs From the Past Recent Finds News Forex and Gold Extras Equipment Dealer Review! Old Books from the 1800's Online 1872 Mining Law Privacy Policy Gold Miner Game Guide to Buying a Claim Equipment for the Desert Most Popular Gold Detectors Ebay Auctions! USGS Data Arizona Mine and Mineral Museum GIS Topo Maps Ore Google Maps/Google Earth NASA World Wind Gold Macros Aqua Regina Newsletter Buy me a Cold One Custom Research Equipment for Sale Metal Detector Manuals My Books Straight Talk News Minerals List Type Database Tucson Gem and Mineral Show Place Names Database Gems and Minerals Gold Price
Gold Dredges
A gold dredge is one of the best methods for recovery gold where water is present. Dredges come in a variety of sizes and are made by several companies in the U.S. and many world wide. I prefer Keene dredges. One of the best sizes is a simple backpack dredge, there are normally have a 1, 1.5, 2 or 2.5 inch diameter hose nozzle. I would stick with a 1 inch for back packing. In the picture below I am running a Keene 3 inch dredge in Northern Arizona in the early 1990s. A gold dredge is a suction device, it uses water through a pump to suck up and move material through a hose into a header and then finally into a sluice box. The sluice box has riffles and the weight of the gold causes it to sink and become trapped behind the riffles as the water flows into and out of the sluice. The sluice box is normally lined with "miners moss" or rubber matting or a combo of both.
If you are in an area with good water and gold I highly suggest getting a dredge and learning how to use it. You can also find plans made by other gold prospectors online on how to make your own dredge. As for Keene dredges all of the them I have ever used I give a big thumbs up. Remember dredging can be hard work but the rewards can be great.
