I am just starting in this gold prospecting adventure and I was wondering approx. how much more material can you go through sluicing than just panning? Is it 10 times as much a 100 times as much? I am thinking of buying a keene sluice but want to know if it is really worth my money. Any and all responses appreciated.

If you want to do well finding gold, get a sluice. It will definately be worth the money. Think of it as a whole team of panners working hard to provide you with nice, clean concentrates to improve your chances of finding goodly amounts of that rare yellow metal. I was very disapointed and discouraged until I got a sluice. Keene is probably the best, but it's also expensive. I picked up a plastic $50 Jobe ez sluice that is proving to be a real good starter sluice. If I stay with this hobby (or addiction), I'll probably upgrade to a Keene someday.

Good luck!

Boogie

Welcome to CP!!
Sluicing will make your panning more efficient. Instead of panning 'raw or semi-classified material' you will be stepping up to panning 'concentrates' obtained in the carpet and matting of the sluice. It basically reduces the amount of unwanted materials and sands that make it to your pan. Get a sluice and take it one step further - purchase a 1/4" or 1/2" mesh classifying screen (around $20-$25 by Keene, Jobe, Proline) which is made to fit on the top of a 5 gallon bucket. Shovel your rough dirt or stream material into the classifying screen (atop the bucket), shake the screen and rinse the material into the bucket. Toss all the bigger stuff from the screen and repeat. NOTE: before you toss that bigger stuff, examine interesting rocks and Quartz, ya never know
THEN.... scoop the classified bucket material into your new sluice. What's left in the carpet and matting after sluicing will be all you will have to pan.
I highly recommend sluicing for more productive panning. I recommend the Keene A51, Keene A52, or the new folding Keene A52P if it's available yet (should be soon if not). Get a good one if you do it. Should cost around $100 +/- if it's worth a dern (edit - the Jobe EZ Sluice for $50 that Boogie recommended may be worthwhile, I have no experience with that one).
ps - my vote is for "100 times as much" compared to panning rough or more...

Thank you both for the info. That was going to be my next question if I should get a screen or not. Have iehter one of you had any experience with Gold N Detectors in golden?

Definitely get the classifying screen. You don't want to be constantly bouncing boulders down your sluice.
I haven't had any experience with Gold N Detectors in Golden but one of the club members gave them a nice write-up in the CP club protected forum recently.

Hi Modern Day Miner and welcome to the Colorado Prospector forums.

You'll love learning about prospecting around Colorado's diverse geology.

As far as material amounts you can process with a sluice vs. panning is a big difference. You can pan a ton or approx a yard in about 1100 pans or so after classifying to 1/2" minus. Time it takes to pan out from scratch 1100 pans would be days and days of work, but yet this same amount could be processed through a sluice with two hard working people in a full days work with only a few pounds of concentrated material to pan out in clean up.
In addition to processing more raw material per day of work, you can then take the concentrated material home or back to camp for later processing in a controled set up with plenty of a time to work the panning, repeatedly if needed to gather all the fines.
Definately I'd recommend a sluice, you'll really like having one.

Classifying is a must as well and if you are into making your own and saving a few , we have a do it yourself set of plans for high volume classifiers in our plans and tips page. Once made these will classify a whole 5 gallon bucket of raw material in just a couple short minutes.....wet of course.

You can also find some panning and sluicing instructions on that page if needed too.

Good luck on all the prospecting.

CP

Here is a site i found threw an ad on Facebook....some good info about pan colors...Guess that's why you use black for cleanup (but i already knew and do that)lol....some people like the dark blue one but they didn't even talk about green (it's on the side of the color wheel just like pink)...that's the most used color.

http://hunting4gold.com/dont-use-pink-pan.html

His color contrast logic works in theory but my eyes don't like the black pan - too much contrast. I have black, blue, and green pans (lol.. no pink, sorry Carl). The green is my go-to pan but I think blue is also pretty easy on the eyes. If working in direct sunlight I prefer green, if overcast - blue. I use the black indoors during cleanup.

That's ok. I think that Gat and Corky are the only ones with them (though I recall seeing a few in the stores).

New Bat Pan Saw the add in the current Gold Prospector Mag. today so i had to check it out.

http://www.batpan.com/Home_Page.html

Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_DBPA881x8&feature=share

Interesting......Don't know if i would trust the last rocking fast part .....Seeings i have seen gold float many times.

Hmmm. Some good principles used there. I have a batea and I'd love to learn how to use it.

+1 and I would recomend getting as close to $50 as possible (for the same size and all) IMHO Keene and the others charge way too much for this stuff - at least Keene gets the excuse of being in CA and having to give so much of that to the state...And definitely get a classifying screenor two(1/2 and 1/4 would be good for a start - check around for a good price ~$30 each : is a little crazy and you can do better), and the black plastic mortor tubs are worthwhile too. When you get your cons, getting a flour sieve from Wally World or else where will greatly help your panning (classifying yet again).

8-21-11
Caribou west of Nederland Colorado....couple specks of gold but threw them back
My Setup for the Day

For a great sluice that will leave you with minimal amounts of cons, I would have to recommend any of the Angus Mackirk units. Light weight, strong, slick plate, and with built in rock bridge. My favorite is the Explorer so far. I've had the AUTrap but found it kind of cumbersome and hard to set up due to its large size. I'm able to feed a large scoop full of - 1/2" every 10 seconds. Have been catching larger flakes along with tiny specs. It has been very impressive so far. This is the 2nd one I've owned as I sold the 1st to a friend and had to get another one. Real good if you are trying to get an accurate sample too. If you trying to catch super small stuff I would screen down to a 8 mesh or smaller. I like a slick plate with expanded metal over carpet for anything smaller than 50 mesh.

I picked up an Angus MacKirk 'Grub Steak' as my first sluice. After using a friends and seeing how the clean up process goes. I have pulled far more gold out of the same spot with the MacKirk.