Gold Wash Plants
Placer Mining Equipment
Everything you need to recover gold from alluvial deposits - built around one all-in-one gold wash plant. 95-98% recovery, mercury-free, portable, made in the USA, shipped worldwide.
What is placer mining equipment?
Placer mining equipment is the gear used to separate gold from loose surface deposits - sand, gravel, and clay - instead of hard rock. In placer (or alluvial) gold mining, the gold is already free; the job is to wash away the worthless material and trap the gold. The machine that does this is a gold wash plant, and it is the centerpiece of nearly every commercial placer gold operation on earth.
A modern wash plant replaces three separate pieces of equipment - a screen, a trommel, and a sluice box - by combining a grizzly intake, classification, and a high-recovery sluice into one portable, ready-to-run unit. Feed it with an excavator or loader, add water, and it recovers gold at 95-98% with no mercury.
Types of Placer Gold Mining Equipment
How the common pieces of placer mining equipment fit together - and why a wash plant does most of the work.
Gold Wash Plants
The all-in-one workhorse: grizzly, classification and sluice in one unit. Our 50-300 TPH models are the core of a placer setup.
Trommels
A rotating drum that screens and breaks up material. Built into every one of our wash plants - see wash plant vs trommel.
Sluice Boxes
Where gold is actually captured. Our mercury-free sluice design recovers fine gold down to 200 mesh.
Classifiers & Screens
Sort material by size before recovery so the sluice runs efficiently. Integrated into the wash plant, not a separate purchase.
Highbankers & Sluices
Small-scale, hand-fed gear for prospecting. Great for sampling - but a wash plant is what you scale to for production.
Concentrators
A final-stage clean-up for the very finest gold. Pairs with a wash plant to push recovery even higher on flour-gold ground.
How to choose placer mining equipment
The right setup comes down to how much material you move per hour and how portable you need to be:
Small claims & prospecting
A 50 ton-per-hour wash plant is highly portable, sets up in under 30 minutes, and is the best seller for individual claims and small mining operations.
Growing & commercial operations
The 100 and 200 ton-per-hour plants handle serious volume while staying movable. The 200 is our commercial best seller.
Large-scale production
The 300 ton-per-hour plant is built for high-volume, large-scale alluvial operations. Not sure which fits? See the full model comparison or read our guide to choosing the right size.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is placer mining equipment?
Placer mining equipment separates gold from loose alluvial deposits - sand, gravel and clay - rather than hard rock. The core machine is a gold wash plant, which combines a grizzly intake, a trommel or screen, and a recovery sluice into one unit. Supporting gear includes classifiers, highbankers, sluice boxes and concentrators.
What equipment do you need for placer gold mining?
Most placer gold operations need three things: a feed source (excavator or loader), a wash plant to screen material and recover gold at 95-98%, and water. A wash plant replaces a separate screen, trommel and sluice box because it does all three jobs in one portable machine.
What is the difference between placer and alluvial gold mining?
The terms are used almost interchangeably. Placer gold is any gold found in loose surface deposits; alluvial gold specifically means placer gold deposited by moving water in rivers, streams and old channels. Both are recovered with the same wash-plant-based equipment.
What is the best placer mining equipment for fine gold?
Fine gold recovery comes down to sluice design and water control. Our wash plants recover gold down to 200 mesh using a mercury-free sluice, so you keep the flour gold most setups lose. For very fine material, pairing a wash plant with a final-stage concentrator maximizes recovery.
How much does placer mining equipment cost?
A gold wash plant is the main investment and is custom-quoted by capacity and configuration, from a portable 50 TPH unit for small claims up to a 300 TPH commercial plant. Because every plant is built to order, pricing is tailored to your operation - request a free quote for current numbers.
Build your placer mining setup
Tell us your material type, volume and location and we'll recommend the right gold wash plant - custom-built in the USA and shipped to your site.