Dredging for Gold

For the period of the time of the gold dredging rush, the miners were restricted in many ways since they were only able to work in areas where only hand tools could be used, which was along the banks of the rivers and streams. The only kind of tools they had were gold pans, sluice boxes and rockers. Evidently as time went by they rapidly became conscious that the deeper gravels in the river beds regularly had a greater amount of gold than the surface gravel that were next to the banks.

At the instigation of the 1900’s a number of simply built steam powered dredges were used on some of the northern rivers in California. The divers that worked inside the bottom of the rivers dressed in very weighty diving helmets and uncomfortable diving suits.

Although it is correct that we have seen that throughout history dredging has existed all around the world for a many number of years, we are only now able to see that it has reached a very high level of status due to the highly developed technology we now have in dredging equipment. The dredges that are used now a days are a lot lighter, are much easier and more convenient to carry around and work in a very competent way. 

There are back pack dredges that only weigh about forty pounds and that cost around seven hundred dollars. This back pack dredge is able to process the same amount of gravel a huge three hundred pound could in the past. One of the greatest things about this type of dredge is that it gives the prospector the capability to get into areas that would not be possible before, since they used to weigh a great deal and were rough to work with. Back pack dredges are in addition a lot more capable than the older machines were in the past.

There are two most important types of dredges that can be found these days in the market. You have the surface sluice and the underwater submersible sluice. The surface dredge is more accepted and the one that saves the most amount of gold.