Power Sluices / Highbankers 

The Secret to Recovering the Most Gold

Any experienced gold miner will tell you that the secret to recovering the most gold is to process a lot of material quickly— and a highbanker does just that! A high banker, also called a power sluice, is a piece of equipment that uses a pump to force water through a sluice to mimic the natural flow of a stream. Sometimes a hopper with spray bars is mounted on top, where the gravel is introduced into the sluice, to wash the gravel over a classifier screen to remove pieces of rock that are too large to go through the sluice. The water pump can be either electric or gas powered. If the unit is designed to catch and recirculate the water it is called a recirculating power sluice, or recirculating hibanker.

In general, a highbanker or power sluice is extremely efficient at trapping gold. The biggest benefit of having this piece of gold prospecting equipment is the ability to process gold-bearing gravels located a distance away from a water source— in other words, you get to bring the water to the gravel, not the gravel to the water! Rather than haul material to the water, you can bring a lightweight, efficient power sluice to the water source! The power sluice can work remote placer deposits hundreds of feet away from a river or stream.

In the case of recirculating units, they can be operated in desert areas with very little water. The typical hopper design washes clay and debris with a high pressure washing spray bar and all washed material becomes classified to less than a half inch for selective recovery. The spray bar may be equipped with a water valve for ease of controlling the flow in the sluice. The sluice itself is constructed like a normal stream sluice except it is equipped with an adjustable independent leg support system that enables the power sluice to be assembled on any type of terrain in a matter of minutes.