Mining in Manitoba 

Sluicing 

Surface Mining Methods

• Panning

• Hydraulicking

• Dredging

• Open Pit

• Strip Mining

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In sluicing, the placer gravel is shoveled into the head of an elongated sluice box which is inclined and has various configurations of bars and traps across the bottom called riffles. Water is directed through the sluice box, and the heavy placer minerals are trapped in the riffles; the fine material is washed over them and out as a relatively barren tailing. Few deposits are left unmined in the western United States, where sluicing might be economical at present gold prices.

In both panning and sluicing operations, it is sometimes possible to collect very fine particles of gold by amalgamation, when mercury is either placed in the bottom of the riffles or smeared on copper plating. The fine gold amalgamates with the mercury and is collected by retorting in small devices which drive off the mercury as vapor, retaining the gold.