Promack Treasure Hunting

The suction nozzle of your sluice box should never be jammed into the gravel, as this will only overfeed your sluice stream and can cause frequent jams. Proper "sluicing" requires a water to material solid ratio of about 3:1, and no less than 2:1.

Sometimes you just need to get a closer look at what you have picked up so a magnifying glass is a useful addition to your basic tools. Some rocks, such as geodes, will have clues on the outside about what is inside, but you may need a glass to see them accurately.

You may think the heyday of gold and silver mining is long gone, but that's not the case. Care to guess the annual revenue for the gold and silver mining industry in the U.S.? If you guessed $8 billion, you're right.

Sluices use running water from a creek or stream to separate gold from gravel. These long, narrow boxes have riffles that trap gold as it passes through.

You know gold is valuable, but were you aware it is also pretty heavy. Care to guess the weight of a cubic foot of solid gold? If you guessed 1,000 pounds, you're right.

Try carrying a stiff paintbrush with you on gem hunts in order to brush clean specimens. When digging in old mine dumps, specimens are often covered with dirt or sand. Use the brush to expose the specimen and inspect it for unique minerals.

Never max out the size rocks that go up into the suction nozzle of your sluice or dredge. Even if you are tempted because you have a large 4" nozzle, all it takes is one oversized rock to get in there and your hose will be plugged at the joints, bringing your prospecting operation to a standstill.

Panning or sluicing for gold, by filtering dirt through a sluice using a tool with barriers along the bottom that trap heavy gold is known as placer mining and is another form of recreational mining.

Can you guess where the largest gold nugget in the U.S. was found? If you guessed Alaska, guess again. It was discovered in California. This mammoth nugget weighed 195 pounds.

Gold is one of the most precious metals on Earth. In its natural state, it's also yellow. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that the word "gold" comes to us from the Old English word "geolu," which means yellow.

Did you know that the first recorded use of the metal detector was in 1881, when Alexander Graham Bell tried to find a bullet lodged in President James A. Garfield's chest? They came into general use around one hundred years later.

Prospecting dry washers can come battery powered or hand-crank style. In either case, the function is the same: vibration is produced so that heavier materials settle faster. The built-in hopper keeps the steam steady while the dual riffle maximizes fine gold recovery.