Fourth Step:
Cleaning Up

When the riffles have gathered black iron sand in amounts that extend over halfway downward to the next lower bar, you should do a clean up. In order to do this you will need to very carefully raise the sluice box from the current and keep it as stable and level as possible.

Then carry the sluice box over the bank of the stream and place it down on the ground. Take the sluice riffle section off and set it on the side and make sure you do not shake off any gravel that is stuck to it. You will then need to roll up the matting that is lined at the bottom of the sluice box trough and then rinse the concentrate off very well. You can rinse this off by placing the matting inside a deep bucket. It is suggested to do it this way because you will avoid losing any gold that would otherwise be lost when you try to rinse out the matting in a gold pan.

You will then need to check the empty sluice box trough and see if there is any fine silt holding onto the bottom. If there is, then you need to rinse all of it into the concentrate pail. Gold often times makes its way under the matting which is laying between the riffle bars and at the bottom of the trough. You may just be impressed at how much gold can accumulate there.