Mining Gold Equipment:
What Tools Do I Need For Gold Mining?
The type of tools that you will need for gold mining depend a great deal on the type of mining that you have in mind.
If you are just out for a day of entertainment to chance your arm in one of the free to prospect rivers then you will need only very basic gold prospecting supplies.
If on the other hand you are hoping to supplement your income then you will want to invest in some professional gold recovery equipment.
Gold Prospecting Equipment
Many people enjoy finding gold in the weekend heading out with just the most basic gold prospecting equipment. This can be as minimal as a gold pan and a small shovel.
You never know your luck, many a sizable nugget has been found with basic equipment like this. Some people will just use a snorkel and mask and specifically target just the big nuggets – a method that works best in an area where gold is prevalent in larger chunks.
View our selection of Gold Prospecting Equipment
Gold Detectors
This is the next step up in gold prospecting. Rather than just poking around blindly the enthusiast prospector wants to know that there is gold in the spot they stop to pan before they dirty their shovel. A metal detector is just the tool to cover a large area without losing a lot of sweat. By walking along a river bank, beach, or the local park, a person with a detector is able to locate any gold concentrations without getting their shovel dirty. These may be rich pockets of gold bearing sand, or they maybe someone’s lost bracelet or ring (depending on where you are prospecting).
Not all gold detectors are equal, see why recommend only one brand of Metal Detector
Gold Sluice Box
The sluice box is the first step up in gold mining technology from the gold pan. Sluice boxes are also a legal gold mining tool in the areas set aside for the New Zealand public to fossick freely. A prospector is able to sift through a lot more raw material with a sluice box than just with a gold pan. The sluice box quickly sheds the bulk of the gravel and waste ore, keeping only the gold and very dense sand that usually accompanies the gold.
Sluice boxes are not the great heavy gold mining equipment that the old timers once used. Now the sluice box is a much more efficient and lite piece of gold mining kit. Add one of our lite-weight plastic Sluice Boxes to your gold prospecting supplies.
If you are looking to refine your sluice concentrates and cut your panning time to a minimum consider our customer’s favourite pick the Bucket Sluice Concentrator.
High Banker Sluice Box
Gold mining technology takes another leap forward with the High Banker Sluice Box. These tools for mining gold speed up gold recovery even more. By adding a water pump and advanced sluicing technology to the basic sluice box concept a prospector is able to shovel raw material into the system faster. The recovery rate of the gold is also improved – especially in areas where the gold is in stickier soil or clay. Another advantage of the High Banker Sluice Box is that water is able to be recycled so the prospector does not require the same amount of water flow in the river, which means prospecting in areas other sluice box operators have not been able to work.
Learn more about our advanced High Banker Sluice Box
Gold Mining Trommel
These gold mining machines are definitely not for the hobby prospector. The Trommel is designed for high volume sorting of raw material. The refined, or classified, product is then run through a sluice box to further refine it. Very high levels of processing can be achieved with shovels aided by a trommel. It is essentially the same gold mining technology that is used on commercial level gold mines that has been scaled down to be equipment that is suitable for a keen prospectors gold mining kit.
Learn how you can greatly increase your gold mining productivity with a Gold Mining Trommel
Gold Dredge
These gold mining supplies are not for the person who wants to prospect without a license. To operate a gold dredge you need to apply for a gold prospecting license from the New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals department. However, once you are set up with a gold dredge and have a suitable river to work you can achieve serious volumes of gold production. The maximum size of the dredge that you are allowed to use in a river is usually stipulated in the prospecting or claim license. There are many river claims still being worked with one and two man gold dredges and a good living can be made with the right claim.
The Gold Lab
The Gold Lab should be an essential part of every prospectors gold mining kit. The reason it is essential equipment for all gold miners is that it boasts a 100% (or near enough to it) gold recovery rate. That is to say that once you have refined, or classified, your gold bearing material down to the gold rich sand concentrate you can than recover almost all the gold from that mix. Using a pan is effective at getting most of the gold when in the hands of an expert gold panner, but when Gold is worth almost $2000 US an Ounce most of the gold is just not a good enough rate of recovery. In fact people are making a good return by revisiting old gold tailings with a Gold Lab and extracting the gold left once “most” of it has been removed.
In this age of high expenses it pays to increase your return to the maximum level possible. And once set up and running The Gold Lab does exactly that. You have done the hard work by classifying your raw mineral, don’t waste the profits by using inferior gold extraction techniques.
See how The Gold Lab recovers 100% of your clean gold.
