Belza Gold Catcher

  Last October I was in Stanton, AZ and met a friendly prospector named Mike Belza.
Mike told me how he sets out small sluice boxes in out of the way dry washes and
  after a rain he retrieves them. He brings the sluice concentrates back to camp to pan.
 This is an easy way to check different washes for values. Here is the gist of what he
does, using a simple homemade sluice and a couple of boards to act as a flair.

First he locates a small wash that looks promising to plant the gold catcher.

Here is another likely area to check out.

Next he plants the small sluice in place with spikes and adds a couple deflectors to
guide the material. The deflectors in this case are a couple 2x2 boards spiked in the wash.

Another view of the arrangement, note these washes have better areas to place
a sluice out of view, this is just for demonstration.

We used three spikes about a foot long to hold the sluice in place 2 in front and 1 in rear.
The deflectors are held in place with two spikes each. Note the deflectors are notched
and help hold down the front of sluice as well.

  The expanded metal and carpet is held in place with 4 ea  1/4 inch bolts with flat washers and
wing nuts on top.  Now camouflage it and wait for the next rain storm to stir up the wash
and hopefully some gold.

I want to thank Mike Belza for sharing this great prospecting idea with us.