Some of the best gold paydirt is run through a dredge before it is sent to the hobby prospector to pan. The reason is that you will get the black sand and concentrates.
If you are new to the sport you may not know that gold hangs out with black sand. This is because of the weight and density of these two elements. So what is a dredge? A dredge is a motor operated "water vacuum". It floats on a water source like a river, stream, or gently moving body of water, and through the hose sucks up the dirt from the bottom, working its way around cracks, rocks, and natural obstacles that catch the gold. Once sucked up it goes down riffles (a sluice), which further refines the dirt.
This leaves only the concentrates, what you may know of as "paydirt". So you know the quality of dredged paydirt versus regular dirt. If you took a one pound bag of dredge dirt, versus a one pound bag of regular dirt(even if it contains gold), 9 out of 10 times the dredge dirt will have the most gold because it has already eliminated the regular sand, rocks, and worthless material.
US $5.75
