New Zealand Gold Fossicking Forums

I dont think there was any set 'plan' for a cradle and I dont know why there should be a sag under the matting - I have never used imitation grass but someone who has been gold mining for many years told me that it is good. We always used anything that held the gold and mostly used coir matting. I have woven type coir matting in my riffle box at the moment.

Over the years we have also used old floor matting as long as it had good pile on it and we found it to be OK - if I lost any gold then I never saw it so I guess it doesnt worry me but all the gold I got was up the top end on the sluice box and nearly all the gold was on the top plate of the cradle when we used it but that was a long time ago as the cradle is still sitting amongst the tussocks beside the creek where I last used it twenty years ago!

You could also be daring and try some 3M 'Nomad' matting.

Nomad is a woven loop synthetic available either backed or unbacked. It's often used in commercially available sluice boxes and it's highly effective at trapping and retaining fine gold. It makes wash-up a lot quicker too. I use the unbacked type, and while you do have to be a little more carefull when lifting the matting out, it takes a fraction of the effort to wash your concentrates out for further processing. Combine it with some ribbed rubber matting like JW sells and it makes for a pretty effective recovery system.

One downside is that Nomad is a little more expensive than conventional matting but I think the benefits more than compensate.

KM

Yep Nomad is the expensive one but there are cheaper equivalents available these days
that are just as good.
Reminds me I used to get a couple of guys come in to my shop about this time of the year
and buy a long skinny piece of that matting. I new it was for gold but that's all they would say.
They must have been doing all right as it happened about 3 years in a row.

well i use green artifical grass it does have to bereplace 2 to 3 times a season i used what i call spagetti matting the same grey stuff in the above photo it was just to time consuming to cleanoutin fact i would say there is still some lodged ni there

once i put spounge on the bottom just 10mm thick them layed old sacking over it pressed the riffles into it that worked really well

one time i left my mating at home so i used punga foungs dry fluffy ones that also works

one of my mates used opposum skin cant remember how that went

I actually found that the old coal sacks made great matting and had forgotten about that until you reminded me and currently I am getting our potatoes given to us and they all come in smaller jute type sacks with a loose weave - it would also be good, especially on top of old matting as the smallest colours would go right through onto the matting...you haveme thinking now and might give that a go this year.

My mother in law is dead, gone and buried and still standing at the gates of heaven trying to explain to St Peter that she didnt realise that her chequebook couldnt buy her a place in paradise...however when I think back I am sure that the jersey she was buried in would have made a dandy riffle box mat!

The old bags, both the Mother in law type and the old coal and grain sacks do turn up now and again...when the old bag died...Oops I meant mother in law...there was a large container of them in her garage which I grabbed but I am sure that coal merchants and a lot of farmers will have heaps of them around.