Gold Prospecting Equipment List With US Prices

Gold prospecting equipment list: what to buy first

A basic hand-tool kit for panning and sampling costs about US$246 at one maker’s list prices: a 14-inch pan, a classifier sieve, a mini sluice box, a crevice tool, fine tweezers and a rock pick (Keene Engineering master price list, 9 February 2026, before tax and shipping). Metal detectors, power sluices and dredges cost far more, and several of them are restricted by law in some places. This page lists each tool, what it does, what it costs and where the rules limit it.

The kit grows in a fixed order. Start with a pan and classifier to learn what the gravel holds. Add a sluice box when you want to process more material. Buy a metal detector only if you plan to hunt dry ground for nuggets, and treat dry washers, power sluices and dredges as a separate decision that needs a permit check first.

Prices are from the Keene master price list dated 9 February 2026. The maker states that prices can change without notice, so check the day you buy. Shovel, bucket, boots, gloves and a snuffer bottle are extra.

How the items were chosen and priced

Every price on this page comes from a maker’s own price list or a retailer’s product page, and each one carries a date. Retailer pages were read on 16 October 2026; the Keene list is dated 9 February 2026. Street prices move, and a discounted price is shown next to the list price (MSRP, the manufacturer’s suggested retail price) where the retailer shows both.

The rules cited come from land managers and regulators: the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), the Idaho Department of Water Resources and Department of Lands, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. They apply to the United States. Canada, Australia and African countries have their own licence systems, so check the local authority before you dig.

Hand tools for panning and sampling

Panning works because gold is heavy. Washington’s geological survey explains that gold is dense and chemically inert, so it collects in placer deposits, most often on or near bedrock, on the inside of stream bends and where flow slows below a gorge or at a tributary junction (Washington DNR, Placer Gold Mining in Washington). A pan, a classifier and a few small tools let you test those spots without moving much ground.

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Hand tools and sluices: maker list price

US$ per item, Keene Engineering price list of 9 February 2026

Gold pan

Best for: first samples and final clean-up of concentrate. Plastic pans with a 90-degree riffled edge hold heavy grains while you tilt and swirl; Garrett’s 14-inch Gold Trap pan, 14-inch sifter and 10-inch backpacker pan are sold as a kit with a suction bottle and two vials (Garrett, gold pan kit page). Keene lists steel and plastic pans from US$7.95 to US$15.00 depending on size. Pros: cheapest tool, no permit on most open public land (see the rules section). Cons: slow, and the skill takes practice.

Classifier sieve

Best for: removing coarse rock so the pan holds only material small enough to concentrate. Keene lists screens from 2 to 100 mesh at US$24.95 each. A coarse screen on top of a bucket saves time; a finer screen helps when you sample for fine gold. Cons: the screen does not tell you the grade, it only prepares the sample.

Digging and cleaning tools

A small shovel or trowel, a crevice tool and a rock pick do the work of getting material out of cracks. Keene prices a crevice tool at US$14.95, tweezers at US$8.75 to US$13.95 and a 14 oz Estwing rock pick at US$49.95. A snuffer or suction bottle moves tiny gold into a vial. Keep a notebook or phone app for the location, depth and rock type of every sample, so the result is useful later.

Sample jar or vial

Store concentrates and any gold in a closed vial with a label for the site and date. If you later send material to an assay laboratory, a clean, labelled sample is far easier to use than a loose bag.

Sluice boxes, rocker boxes and high bankers

A sluice is a trough with riffles (raised bars) that lets water carry light material away while heavy particles settle. Washington’s rules define a pan, a non-motorized sluice or concentrator, a mini rocker box and a non-motorized mini high-banker with a riffle area of 3 square feet or less as the equipment allowed under the state’s freshwater prospecting rules without timing restrictions (WDFW, Gold and Fish pamphlet, May 2021 edition). Other states define sluice limits differently, so always check the local rule.

Keene’s list shows the price jump from hand tools to a sluice: a mini sluice box at US$134.95, a high-production hand sluice (A52) at US$174.95 and its A52S super sluice at US$495.95. A high banker adds a pump that lifts stream water into a hopper above the sluice. Keene prices the pumped A52S double-pumper high banker at US$1,349.95 and a complete A52S high banker assembly at US$2,595.00 (price list of 9 February 2026).

Best for: running more gravel than a pan can handle at a spot you have already tested. Pros: more material per hour, and no engine in the hand-fed versions. Cons: a pump, hoses and fuel add weight and cost, and moving water out of a stream can need its own water-use approval, as Idaho notes for high bankers.

What a starter kit costs against the gold it recovers

For most hobby prospectors a kit pays for itself only if you recover enough grams on enough days. The calculator below lets you test your own numbers. You enter the grams you recover per day from your own log, a gold price and your trip cost. Gold is sold in troy ounces of 31.1035 grams, so divide a per-ounce quote by 31.1035 to get a price per gram.

Metal detectors for gold: frequency, price and weight

Gold nuggets are small and conduct electricity poorly, so a detector built for coins misses many of them. Garrett’s guide puts general-purpose detectors at 5 to 15 kHz (kilohertz, the number of signal cycles per second), entry-level gold machines at 15 to 20 kHz, and high-frequency machines at 40 to 70 kHz and above for fine gold; pulse induction (PI) detectors use no fixed frequency and are made for deep targets in mineralized ground (Garrett, detector frequency for gold). Ground balance, the control that tunes out the signal of mineralized soil, is a main feature on gold detectors.

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Three gold detectors: list price against sale price

US$, retailer pages read on 16 October 2026

Prices: Serious Detecting for the AT Gold, Kellyco for the Gold Monster 1000 with a 5-inch coil and Kellyco for the GPX 6000, all read on 16 October 2026. Garrett’s owner’s manual describes the AT Gold as a motion all-metal detector with manual and automatic ground balance, waterproof to a maximum of 10 feet (3 metres) (Garrett, AT Gold owner’s manual). The Gold Monster 1000 listing states a 45 kHz VLF design, a 2-year warranty and automatic operation aimed at beginners; the GPX 6000 listing gives a 3-year warranty and two included coils.

Best for: dry washes, old workings and hillsides where there is no water to run a sluice. Pros: covers ground fast and disturbs little soil. Cons: the price, the learning time, and the limits of the ground itself: iron-rich soil, hot rocks and trash targets produce signals that look like gold. A detector finds metal near the surface, not gold deposits at depth.

Dry washers, power sluices and dredges: price and limits

Powered equipment moves more ground and costs far more. Keene lists a mini vibrostatic dry washer (140S) at US$995.00, a 4 hp power sluice (173H) at US$3,039.95, a 2.5-inch dredge with a 12-inch sluice box at US$4,050.00 and a 5-inch jet-flare dredge at US$9,050.00 (price list of 9 February 2026). A dry washer separates gold with air in places with no water, which suits desert ground. Dredges pull stream gravel through a hose to a floating sluice.

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Powered gear: maker list price

US$ per unit, Keene Engineering price list of 9 February 2026 (power sluice and dredges include a Honda engine)

Best for: claim holders and permitted operators who already know the ground carries gold. Cons: price, engine noise, fuel, and permits. California bans suction dredging in all rivers, streams and lakes, and the state wildlife agency says it is currently prohibited from issuing suction dredge permits (California Department of Fish and Wildlife). Idaho caps suction dredges at a 5-inch nozzle and 15 horsepower and requires a Department of Water Resources letter permit plus a water-quality discharge permit (Idaho Department of Water Resources).

Rules before you dig: which tools are allowed where

Rules depend on who owns the land and whether the ground is already claimed. In the Montana-Dakotas guidance, BLM says gold panning is allowed without a special permit on its land unless the area is closed or claimed, and treats it as an example of casual use, meaning activity that causes little or no surface disturbance (BLM Montana-Dakotas mining claims packet, February 2026). The same packet says a recreational miner with a pick, metal detector, shovel or gold pan needs no special permit on BLM land in Montana and the Dakotas, while a suction dredge needs a permit from the state water protection agency.

Alaska’s BLM office lists a pick, shovel, rocker box, sluice box or metal detector as the tools allowed for panning along the Dalton Highway, and says suction dredge use on someone’s federal claim needs BLM authorization and is not casual use (BLM Alaska, panning along the Dalton Highway). On private land you need the owner’s permission, and on someone else’s mining claim you need the claimant’s. Owning a claim is also not the same as owning the land, which is the point of the video below.

Mercury and safety

Never use mercury to recover gold. The US Environmental Protection Agency describes how mercury is mixed with gold-bearing material to form an amalgam that is then heated, releasing toxic vapour, and points miners to concentration methods that avoid mercury (US EPA, mining without mercury). Gravity tools such as pans, sluices and shaking tables need no mercury. Wear gloves and boots, work with a partner near fast water, tell someone your plan, and stay out of old shafts.

▶ Explains why owning a gold claim is not owning the land, and how to check the ground before you buy. · 3:19

Servicing and maintaining your prospecting tools

Most failures come from wear and from storage, not from faults. A short routine keeps each tool working.

• Detector: Garrett’s manual says to wipe the control housing with a damp cloth, take the stem apart and wipe it and the coil clean, use quality alkaline batteries and replace all of them together, and remove batteries when storing the detector for more than a month. Using the AT Gold deeper than 10 feet submerged voids its 24-month limited warranty (Garrett, AT Gold owner’s manual).
• Sluice: riffles, mats and expanded metal wear out. Keene sells a rubber mat for a folding sluice (20 by 10 inches) at US$47.95 and expanded metal riffle material at US$35.00.
• Dry washer: the recovery cloth is a replaceable part. Keene lists dry washer cloth at US$19.95 to US$24.00.
• Pans: rinse out clay and fines after each trip and store the pan flat.
• Engines and pumps: follow the engine maker’s service schedule. Keene lists pump O-rings and bearings as separate parts, so a worn seal need not mean a new pump.

Keep a log of the date, the site, hours worked and any repairs. The same log feeds the payback calculator above.

Geologic clues that tell you where to use the kit

Equipment finds gold only where gold exists. Two kinds of target matter. Placers are loose gold in gravels, and the Washington survey says they sit where flow slows: wide valleys below a gorge, junctions of tributaries, quiet reaches and inside bends. Lode gold sits in solid rock, and Washington’s geological bulletin on gold notes that gold-bearing ores are most commonly found in quartz veins closely associated with granitic or volcanic rocks (Washington Division of Geology, Gold in Washington).

• Quartz veins cutting bedrock are the usual host of lode gold, but most quartz carries no gold.
• Iron staining (rusty red or yellow soil and rock) shows oxidized iron minerals and can mark altered rock near a mineralized zone.
• Altered, clay-rich bedrock along drainage lines can point to hot-water alteration.
• Old workings and tailings show that earlier miners found something, and they may hold gold the early methods missed. The Washington survey makes the same point for old bedrock workings.
• Black sands (dark heavy minerals in the pan) often sit with gold because both are heavy.

Our guide to where to find gold nuggets and what the sulphur clue means covers the host-rock side. For state-level geology and permits, see gold mining in South Dakota, gold deposits in Wyoming and gold mining in British Columbia.

Low-impact sampling practice

Treat every sample as a small excavation that you must leave tidy. A few habits cover most of the damage risk.

• Get permission first. Confirm land ownership, any claims and closures before you start. Agencies publish this; do not rely on a map app.
• Keep away from banks and water intakes. Work downstream of drinking water and irrigation intakes, and stay off riparian zones (the vegetated bank strip) unless the rules allow work there.
• Take small, shallow samples. Take the top layer and the gravel above bedrock; do not undercut banks or dig a pit deep enough to collapse.
• Fill holes and return material. Put tailings back where they came from and restore the vegetation.
• Record every sample. Log the position, depth and result for each sample, including the ones with no gold.

▶ A short claymation on the seven environmental impacts of mining, which is why sampling should stay small and be restored. · 2:31

Check the ground from space before you buy the kit

Satellites do not see gold itself, but they map the rock around it: iron-oxide staining, clay and mica alteration and long faults that hot water used. Farmonaut’s satellite mineral detection reports use multispectral data to rank target zones inside a licence or claim boundary as exploration targets, ahead of any resource estimate. That helps a licence holder choose where a hand-tool programme should start. Read more on the satellite-based mineral detection page, request a quote through the mining query form or contact us.

▶ Shows how satellites help find gold by mapping iron stains, clay minerals and faults rather than gold itself. · 4:25

Frequently asked questions

What equipment do I need to start gold prospecting?

A pan, a classifier sieve, a small shovel or trowel, tweezers, a vial and a notebook. At Keene’s list prices of 9 February 2026, the pan, sieve, crevice tool, tweezers, rock pick and mini sluice box together cost about US$246.

How much does a gold pan cost?

Keene lists plastic and steel pans from US$7.95 to US$15.00 for 10- to 17-inch sizes (price list of 9 February 2026). Kits with a classifier, bottle and vials cost more.

Is a gold pan or a sluice box better?

A pan is best for testing a spot and cleaning concentrate. A sluice handles much more gravel per hour once you know a spot carries gold. Most prospectors use both.

Do I need a permit to pan for gold?

In BLM’s Montana-Dakotas guidance, panning on open BLM land is allowed without a special permit as casual use; check with the local BLM office, and private land and claims need the owner’s or claimant’s permission. State rules apply to water, so check the state agency (BLM Montana-Dakotas packet, February 2026).

Can I use a metal detector to find gold on public land?

Often yes on open BLM land, with limits. BLM Alaska lists a metal detector among the tools allowed along the Dalton Highway in Alaska, while national and state parks and historic sites are off limits, as Garrett’s manual also warns.

What is the best metal detector frequency for gold?

Garrett’s guide gives 15 to 20 kHz as an entry range and 40 to 70 kHz and above as the range for fine gold. Pulse induction detectors have no fixed frequency and are made for deep targets in mineralized ground.

How much does a gold metal detector cost?

Listings read on 16 October 2026 show the Garrett AT Gold at US$640.99, the Minelab Gold Monster 1000 at US$899.00 and the Minelab GPX 6000 at US$6,999.00.

Is suction dredging legal?

It depends on the state. California prohibits it in all rivers, streams and lakes. Idaho allows it with a letter permit and a discharge permit, within a 5-inch nozzle and 15 horsepower limit.

How do I look after my prospecting tools?

Wipe and dry detectors, remove batteries for long storage, replace worn sluice mats and riffles, rinse pans and follow the engine maker’s schedule for pumps.

Do I need mercury to recover gold?

No. Pans, sluices and other gravity tools work without it. The US EPA warns that heating mercury-gold amalgam releases toxic vapour.

Can satellite data help me choose where to prospect?

Satellite data can screen a licence area for alteration patterns and structures that often go with gold. It gives exploration targets, and ground sampling is still needed to test them.