Gold sluices have been around for hundreds of years and may be old technology but the mats and miners moss that go in them are not. Sluice mats and miners moss use cutting edge technology and materials to catch the most gold possible. 

Most sluice boxes will have riffles in the sluice run to give the water turbulence. The riffles create little vortices which drop the gold out of the material and into the sluice box. If there isn’t a sluice mat or miners moss in the run, the gold will just keep washing down and out the end of the box. Many prospectors layer their sluice with different types of riffles, mats and miners moss to give the gold the best chance possible of sticking in the box. 

When upgrading your gold sluice matting or miners moss it is best practice to test out different configurations, sluice angles and how much material you feed the box. Some configurations will want more water with less material, some will want more material but the same amount of water, etc. It’s always a good idea to pan your sluice tailings to be sure you’re catching all the gold. 

When you’re finished running paydirt, you simply remove the riffles and then carefully roll up the matting and miners moss. Move the matting and miners moss directly into a bucket and rinse it out very well. This will leave the material you’ll clean up in the bucket. Be sure to carefully rinse your sluice run into the same bucket as some gold could have been left in the box.