Other Methods for Retrieving Gold

It is possible to work two to three times more gravel every day with a rocker in comparison to the amount that can be worked on with a pan. A rocker, or cradle, needs to be handled with a lot of care and precision in order for the finer gold to remain in it and not get lost. However when using the rocker or cradle, the job of washing it not as difficult, however the same method, maybe with a pick or shovel, can be used for excavating the gravel. Both gold pans and rockers are utilized for sampling and washing the sluice concentrates and the material that has been retrieved from the bedrock. It is possible to dig and wash one to two cubic yards in a rocker for every man shift; obviously this will also depend on the distance the gravel and water needs to be carried to, the character of the gravel one is working with, and the size of the rocker or cradle. In the case of a person using a gold pan though, if the person has a lot of experience at it, he or she can pan up to 10 larger pans per day which is around half to one cubic yards of gravel per day, obviously a lot will depend on how much debris is found in the dry bank gravel. In general the common size 16 inch pan that is filled can have around 22 pounds of dry bank gravel. There will be approximately around 150 to 180 of those pans for every cubic yard. If you are using a 12 inch pan you will need to work over two times that amount for every cubic yard. In any case, the top soil or cover will in most cases be thrown out and the first few inches of material will be worked on right on top of the bedrock, including the material that has been scraped from the crevices. There are different types of rockers and many people even make their own. These come in many different designs and are not complicated to put together. In general these consist of a combination of a washing box with a screen, a canvas or sometimes a carpet that is placed under the screen, a shorter sluice that has a few riffles and has rockers underneath the sluice. The lower end of the washing box is a metal sheet that has punched in holes that are around one half inch in diameter. Another option is to use a one inch mesh screen. There are different dimensions for these and this will mainly depend on the amount of materials that one is thinking about working on. Nonetheless, the bottom of a rocker should consist of a wise and smooth board because this will make the cleaning up process a lot easier. The materials are needed in order to make a rocker are very cheap, but mainly this will depend on what type of wood one is considering using.