Big Bear, CA - Re-circulating sluice questions

[Marleysurf11]

Heading up to Big Bear for the next week to do some prospecting. My parents have a cabin up there and live there most of the year so luckily I go up there as much as I can. Thru the years we have done some mining, sluicing at some of the small local streams, and dry washing at multiple spots in Holcomb Valley. I'm looking to get more serious, well I should say spend more time up there. I'm going to also start testing a few local spots around where the cabin is, around Holcomb, and testing a few of the piles of old pilings at multiple old mines. There are a few big ones that have good size piles of old material that was gone thru. But my thinking is when the material was gone thru (many many years ago - hundreds of years ago) the equipment was not close to as good as what we have today. Again this is my THOUGHT.. So I'm going to test it this trip and take a few pails from a few different sites, label them so I know where they came from, and go thru the material at the cabin while I enjoy a nice cold beverage. Maybe I'll find nothing, but I'm thinking that I might find something as there was and still is plenty of gold up there. I leave tomorrow morning (Saturday) and I'll keep you all updated on my findings. I also have a small mini re-circulating sluice that I found while looking thru our equipment. I believe it's missing one wood leg that is used to fit into a bucket (I'll remake one). And those small pins pull out and release the screen and pad for a clean out. Has anyone used one of these?? I'll try posting a few pictures of it and hopefully someone can give me some advice as how to use it or some tips!! Talk soon!

 

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[Marleysurf11]

I also have this sluice box that I'll be using if I can find any water in a stream up there! I'll also take. A few more pics of the re-circulating sluice box as I'm hoping someone has some info on how to use it or if I should change anything to it... Thanks again!

 

[russau]

Didn't you get a sheet of directions on "How to use" this small sluice ? This sluice (incase you don't know) is for running your classified cons in a slower current. and the 2 alum. bars are to place a large rock to weight it down so you don't lose your sluice and what's in it. Sounds like you have a ideal situation . Good luck and keep us informed (picture's) as to your progress !

 

[RTR]

I also have this sluice box that I'll be using if I can find any water in a stream up there! I'll also take. A few more pics of the re-circulating sluice box as I'm hoping someone has some info on how to use it or if I should change anything to it... Thanks again!

That sluice works GREAT ! And it catches fine gold. All you need is proper water flow .One inch per running foot/length drop on the sluice.Classify material to 20-40 mesh (for best results). Gravity will do the rest.
Note...In a stream, place a heavy flat rock on the 2 metal strips to hold the sluice in place,and make sure the sluice is level (width wise).

 

[RTR]

Also, if you find big boulders on a stream up there dig under and around them and run that material thru the sluice.Works 4 me .

 

[wildminer]

Heading up to Big Bear for the next week to do some prospecting. My parents have a cabin up there and live there most of the year so luckily I go up there as much as I can. Thru the years we have done some mining, sluicing at some of the small local streams, and dry washing at multiple spots in Holcomb Valley. I'm looking to get more serious, well I should say spend more time up there. I'm going to also start testing a few local spots around where the cabin is, around Holcomb, and testing a few of the piles of old pilings at multiple old mines. There are a few big ones that have good size piles of old material that was gone thru. But my thinking is when the material was gone thru (many many years ago - hundreds of years ago) the equipment was not close to as good as what we have today. Again this is my THOUGHT.. So I'm going to test it this trip and take a few pails from a few different sites, label them so I know where they came from, and go thru the material at the cabin while I enjoy a nice cold beverage. Maybe I'll find nothing, but I'm thinking that I might find something as there was and still is plenty of gold up there. I leave tomorrow morning (Saturday) and I'll keep you all updated on my findings. I also have a small mini re-circulating sluice that I found while looking thru our equipment. I believe it's missing one wood leg that is used to fit into a bucket (I'll remake one). And those small pins pull out and release the screen and pad for a clean out. Has anyone used one of these?? I'll try posting a few pictures of it and hopefully someone can give me some advice as how to use it or some tips!! Talk soon!

I believe that is a micro sluice brand. They have a website you may want to look at online. I have their concentrator model that I bought new maybe 20 years ago from the original inventor. It is a mini hibanker that sits on two five gallon buckets and runs an electric pump and also has a vibrator mechanism to help "settle" the fine gold. It has a great recovery rate for 1/4" down to very fine gold and breaks down to be back packable although of course you need a battery. It is kind of a hassle to clean out with it due to all of the parts, but doable. I don't use mine any more and instead use a multi-sluice and gold cube. I would say it is a good clean up sluice that could be used in the field for small amounts of sampling as it is rather slow. Good luck to you!

 

[Reed Lukens]

Yup, the micro sluice is just for concentrating your cons from the other. It's old school technology but when set up right it works fine. A gold cube is better, but the micro sluice will catch and clean the gold from a gold cube also. The only problem is that you will have some of the ultra fines that drop over into your catch bucket, but that's normal with every piece of equipment. I don't have any pictures of mine but they run a bit of pito tube over the turkey skewers that hold down the v-mat. You can pick up new skewers on Amazon and the small plastic tubing at any hardware store. I also have the same Angus sluice and I love it. You won't get enough concentrates from it to bother with setting up your micro sluice, but keep and fix up the micro sluice for later. After you pan out your cons from the sluice, toss the cons back into a 5 gallon bucket. Then after it's half full or more, run those cons back again,, this time through the micro sluice and see how it works. You will see the gold right away. There's a ton of info and movies about it online.