Sluice for Sapphires?

[calxoddity]

Hi,
   I bought a creek-powered sluice years ago but never got a chance to use it.  It's effectively a flat long tray that converges into a section where the floor is little square holes to catch the goodies.

I'm thinking of bringing it along for the upcoming Glen Innes trip, seeing as there's running water and all.  Has anybody had any success with sluicing for gems rather than gold?

[oldlrnut]

Yes it does work Calx. If I am at a location that has gold as well, I have been in the habit of running the tailings from seiving through the stream sluice. The end result is usually small sapphires, blackjack, zircon and whatever else is heavy along with gold.
If you do not seive first (at least with the 1/4" one) you would probably lose all of the sapphires that are too big to be trapped by the little square holes (and there are lots of them usually eh?).
To trap the fine gold with the stream sluice, I put a bit of hessian or similar under the piece of plastic/rubber.

[Findem]

As a guide, places where you can actually see the water moving are often hundreds of metres apart in Yarrow Creek, for example. You could build a sand dam in a few other places, but the next problem is going to be carrying the wash to the sluice. Wheelbarrow perhaps?

[calxoddity]

ah, but the Secret Location does have running water! 

[mg]

Sounds like Kookabookra.

[Wwoofa]

Running water sounds pretty much the same everywhere mg 

[Findem]

True, but mg is right, isn't he? Incidentally but not irrelevantly, my wife's grandfather used to work on the Mitchell River dredge at Kookabookra and my mother-in-law was born there.

[calxoddity]

True, but mg is right, isn't he? Incidentally but not irrelevantly, my wife's grandfather used to work on the Mitchell River dredge at Kookabookra and my mother-in-law was born there.

Rightness is just a state of mind (or something...).  3 weeks to go!

[Jimnyjerry]

ah, but the Secret Location does have running water! 

If Glen Innes has had as much rain lately as Findem mentioned you may have to convert the sluice into a boat 

[Aussie Sapphire]

More rain last night - creeks are full.

cheers
Leah

[Nik_I]

As gold more hard jewels you should reduce a sluice angle of slope. On an exit you should receive quartz with jewels