Best sluice matting you can find nearby?

[SoonerStateProspector]

I was going to order some vortex matting or miners moss from Amazon but wanted to take a look at Home Depot or Lowe's to see what I can find first. Does anyone have any recommendations or specific matting to use that I can grab from a local hardware store or do I have to order the matting online? This is going in a sluice 10" W, 36" L and 4"H with no flare attached.

 

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[rodoconnor]

The vortex mat [ Conveyor belt material] is miles ahead of anything I've ever used. If you have a bearing supply place near you check there. it sometimes goes by the name of "rough top conveyor matting". G/L

 

[goldenIrishman]

Sluice matting is like any other equipment used in mining. You have to fit it to the terrain, or in this case the materials you're running.

That said, you should consider something that will give you the most bang for your buck. The more different types of recovery surfaces you can get in your sluice the better. Simple piece of carpet can recover gold, but if that's all you have in your box you will only have a single surface. If that surface won't catch certain sizes or shapes of gold at the top of the box, then there's very little chance that it will further down. If you add riffles or expanded metal you increase your chances of catching more gold that you would have missed.

As an example, I was running a long tom style of recirculating sluice out here in the desert but found that the carpets and riffles would get clogged up with black sands after only a bucket or so. Needless to say this was a pain because I had to stop and do a clean out way to often. Once your recovery surface gets clogged like that you end up "Flat boarding". There are no more nooks and crannies to catch the gold. I ended up breaking out my "Drop Riffle" sluice and that worked much better in THAT location.

While there are many different types of matting on the market, they are not all created equal. While some will work well with your materials, others may not be as effective. If you want to see what works best, you have to be willing to experiment a bit with different capture surfaces. Doc from Gold Hog offers several styles of mats that will join together seamlessly and offer many different catching surfaces all in one mat. They are a little on the pricey side but have become known to be some of the best gold catching mats on the market. Do your research before you buy and in the long run it will save you money.

 

[SoonerStateProspector]

Great and helpful information, guys. My primary focus is fine gold 50-200 mesh. I've looked into the Gold Hog matting and watched the video Doc did showing the GH matting versus the Vortex matting and was surprised at the results.

 

[bcfromfl]

I've watched all of Doc's videos, and his tests are top notch. Fine gold is so difficult to recover with confidence, that it would kill me if I went with something inferior because it was easier to get -- or cheaper -- knowing all the gold I would be giving back to the river gods...

 

[russau]

GI said it all ! You need to say what kind of equipment your planning on running and what kind of classification you plan to do in order to give any specific advice . When I go out , I try to have several types of riffels /matting/ETC. because I usually wont know until I get there what will work in this stream. Right now I have my 2 inch dredge with Docs Gold Hog matting and Im putting Docs matting into my 4 inch dredge currently! I hope to get both of them into the water in a couple of months , somewhere in the USA!

 

[Jimmydolittle]

I used Gold Hog mats for three years in my highbanker, and they are good mats. With all the arthritis I have in my hands, I switched to vortex. It is easier for me to clean up, may not catch as much -100 stuff as GH, but all in all Vortex works for me.

The vortex mat [ Conveyor belt material] is miles ahead of anything I've ever used. If you have a bearing supply place near you check there. it sometimes goes by the name of "rough top conveyor matting". G/L

 

[arizau]

Here is Doc's source for vortex mat. Vortex Mat

If what you have in mind is a stream sluice or a highbanker setup then you are probably better off using Doc's regular mats since the vortex mat is used mostly for cleanup of already accumulated concentrates.

Good luck

 

[Bandmenter]

I am building my own sluice and while searching on the inner webs for idea I came across the Australian Prospecting forum. There is a bloke on the site named Wal who built his own high banker and he uses a spaghetti door mat material. I tried to find it locally to no avail so I ordered some online, $30. Afterwards, I found that Menards had brought some in, $12. The nice thing about it is that it has a backing on it unlike miners moss.

 

[triple d]

Another good thing is with gold hog mat. They are interchangeable. You can cover different situations easier. And for fine gold i havent found anything better. And thats mostly what I find in New England. 100 Mesh and finer.

 

[rodoconnor]

Most of my gold 100 minus. Vortex mat grabs it no worries

 

[wildminer]

Great and helpful information, guys. My primary focus is fine gold 50-200 mesh. I've looked into the Gold Hog matting and watched the video Doc did showing the GH matting versus the Vortex matting and was surprised at the results.

Same size gold I'm trying to capture and smaller. I'd like to try Gold Hog mats, but trying to hold costs down and use what I have. The absolute best that I have personally used on the small gold is the under box on an over-under configuration with veranda carpet with expanded over the carpet. If anything goes under the carpet it will get caught in the thin backing. This was classified to 1/8" with punch plate. Another advantage of carpet for fine gold is that when it is dry you can roll it up and knock more gold out into a pan. Also if you think you want to replace the carpet you can burn it in a steel pan and pan that.

 

[arizau]

Just so you know and if you choose to use miners moss.....Goldhog sells their own brand called Hog Moss. Miners Moss

 

[goldhog]

It's a bit complex.... hence the need for 9 different mats in our line.
Much it comes down to matching the exchange velocity, but
the type of matting, as well as any "riffles" or metal over it, varies GREATLY.
Much of it has to do with matching several factors.
Water Depth - Sluice width - GPH per sluice width inch - classification levels - slurry viscosity - size of gold - etc - etc.
Your "capture surface" as well as the EXCHANGE PROCESS must match these.
It's also a VERY good idea to CHANGE these during the run of sluice.
IE: Varying the sluice width and capture surfaces.
It's what the BEST... commercial ops do.
Vary what the slurry is exposed to during the run at different points.
If you get REALLY BORED....
This video might help.
It doesn't exactly answer your questions but has some good info in it.
Doc