Even if you have the best gold sluice or highbanker, it is essential to use a high-quality matting surface if you want to be able to retrieve more gold per load. You definitely don’t want to waste your time and let precious gold being washed away!
Let’s now see a review of the best sluice mat for fine gold recovery, as well as the best miner’s moss!
Table of Contents
Best Sluice Mat for Fine Gold Recovery
Tuff Stuff deep grooves V mat for gold sluice from Jobe
This is one of the most popular matting surfaces for gold sluice on Amazon! It is highly appreciated, and has a rating of 4.6 out of 5 with more than 250 reviews.
This sluice mat has deeper V grooves than standard matting surfaces. The overall height of the mat is 150/1000th of an inch and the depth of the grove is 110/1000th of an inch or 3.81 mm thick with a groove depth of 2.79 mm. This design is polyvalent and is perfectly designed to catch fine gold, pickers, as well as small gold nuggets.
Click here to see the Tuff Stuff deep grooves V mat from Jobe (different sizes available)
The deep V grooves mat from Jobe is made of rubber and is robust and lightweight. It is also available in different sizes for more convenience: 12 or 24 inches wide by 12, 24 or 48 inches long (12 inches = approx. 30.5 cm). Furthermore, you can always cut it further for a perfect fit in your gold sluice.
In summary, this is a good and polyvalent sluice mat. However, in order to to retrieve even more fine gold, I would recommend using the deep V grooves mat in combination with a second type of matting surface like a miner’s moss or a vortex dream mat (see reviews down below) .
Riffled rubber mat from ASR Outdoor (10”x27”)
This riffled mat is really nice! No wonder why it is so popular with more than 200 reviews and a rating of 4.3 out of 5 on Amazon. This sluice mat is sold by ASR Outdoor, a small business and trusted American company located in Washington.
One of the best features of this sluice mat is that it combines 3 different riffle trap patterns. The Hungarian riffle traps increase the turbulence behind the riffle and help to agitate the sand to improve gold deposition within the recovery traps. Furthermore, this sluice mat has V-shaped riffles which are perfectly designed to catch fine gold. The last type of matting surface is the square riffle trap. This portion of the sluice mat is good for recovering small nuggets and pickers.
Check this riffled rubber mat for fine gold recovery from ASR Outdoor on Amazon (27’’x10’’)
The riffled mat is made with lightweight green thermoplastic rubber, which is robust and makes it convenient to fold for transport. The green color makes it perfect to easily spot gold. This sluice mat is 10 inches wide (25.4 cm), but it also has a pre-scored indent so that it can easily be cut down to only 8 inches (20.32 cm) using the guide line on the back of the matting. Therefore, this sluice mat would fit most standard sluice boxes.
All you need is to do is to install it in your sluice box, and you can use Gorilla tape or else to fix it perfectly in place. While some users complained that it was not fully flat upon shipment, you should keep in mind that this sluice mat is fully eligible for return, refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
In summary, this is one of the best sluice mat for fine gold recovery and a sluice mat that I would highly recommend. It is a great deal combining polyvalence with highly efficiency!
SE Prospector’s choice riffled sluice box matting (10”x27”)
This riffled sluice box matting is almost identical to the previous model shown above, so I won’t go through the details and specifications once again.
I decided to include the Prospector’s choice in this list mainly because it is slightly cheaper than the one sold by ASR. In addition, the Prospector’s choice is also made by Sona Enterprises, an American family-run business located in California. Depending on product availability and your location, you may prefer this product instead of its twin product presented above.
Mini Vortex Dream mat (6″x16″)
The Vortex Dream mat is simply amazing and I totally agree with its well-deserved rating of 4.9 out of 5 on Amazon!
This sluice mat is using a newly patented technology instead of the standard V-shapes or riffles. Furthermore, this sluice mat is scientifically designed and engineered to create small water vortexes. As a result, the flow will naturally separate gold and push it on the edges of the vortex to make it stick to the sides of the cells. This method is extremely efficient to retrieve fine gold or flour gold. In addition, it also works very well with bigger gold nuggets.
Check this Vortex Dream mat (6’’x16’’) on Amazon
The Vortex Dream is also light and flexible. It can be used without any issues in high steep terrain, as well as in low water flow. In addition, this sluice is perfect to remove heavy sediments for the final cleanup step. This sluice mat will therefore save you a lot of time and effort.
In conclusion, the Vortex Dream mat is one of the best sluice mat for fine gold recovery! This is a great finishing mat that will reduce your sluice length while definitely increasing its efficiency. It can also be used on its own and is very convenient to install in tight spots.
Please have a look at the following video to see it in action!
Best miners moss for fine gold recovery
The miner’s moss is a classic! This sluice box matting has made its proofs and has been used by prospectors since quite a long time.
The miner’s moss is made of woven vinyl arranged in a loop pattern also called spaghetti cushion gold prospecting matting or noodle loop. This kind of surface contains small pockets that can easily traps fine gold. It is also easy to use. At the end of the process, you only need to remove the moss and shake it or hose it down in a bucket to recover the gold.
Click here to see the Miners Moss Sluice Box Matting from ASR Outdoor on Amazon
Furthermore, the miner’s moss will fit any size of sluice or high banker since it can be cut down to reduce its size without breaking the mesh pattern and without impacting its efficiency. As supplied, the miner’s moss is 12 inches by 36 inches with a thickness of 10mm. It is also available in 3 different colors: blue, green or grey.
While the using a miner’s moss is pretty straightforward, there are a few minor things to consider. The miner’s moss is firm, but not stiff. As a result, you may want to use some kind of plate to be able to remove it easily from your sluice without loosing any gold.
Nevertheless, this is one of the best sluice mat for fine gold recovery. The miner’s moss is indeed very good to catch gold pickers and heavy black sand. It is a though and reusable sluice matting surface that will last you several years. In conclusion, this is a very good sluice matting surface that will increase the efficiency of your gold sluice or highbanker.
Check the following video to see how you could even use a combination of miner’s moss and Vortex Dream mat!
Best sluice mat for fine gold recovery: the final verdict
The best sluice mat for fine gold recovery depends on the setup of your gold sluice or highbanker. If you are using a single sluice mat, then I would recommend the riffled mat either from ASR or SE.
For even better results, I would also recommend using one of those riffled mat in combination with a Vortex Dream mat or the miner’s moss at the end. This way, you would make sure to retrieve gold more efficiently, no matter its size. Although both the Vortex Dream mat and miner’s moss would be very good, I personally prefer the Vortex for its convenience and high efficiency. I hope you enjoyed reading this and that it helped you decide which sluice mat is the best for you. Please let me know if you have any question in the comment section down below.
Finally, you may interested to look at my previous guides to help you find the best gold panning kit for beginners or the best sluice box or highbanker. In addition, you may be interested by these reviews of the best rock hammers, rock tumblers and rock tumbling supplies.
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