1. By: sausau

2. Panning- panning is the most simplest technique used to find alluvial gold(above ground, in lakes) which was small nuggets or small amounts of gold that were found in creek beds and underground of shallow water. To use the pan, a miner would place a small amount of soil, gravel and sand into a pan as well as a significant amount of water. The miner would then swirl out any dirty water, leaving behind little amounts of gold at the bottom of the pan. All the gold have been located at that spot because it had sunk to the bottom when the water was being swirled This is the most easy and the cheapest way to find gold

3. Cradling is similar to panning. Cradles are suppose to separate gold from dirt and gravel. There are these little stumps of wood called cleats which capture the gold (certain type of gold is alluvial gold). The water will flow off the cradle, leaving behind little specks of gold. Not much gold is found in cradles.

4.  Sluicing is a simple technique, not used much in search for gold. On one side of the sluice box is a metal triangle used so that the water can rush through. The sluice box captures gold with this sponge like material, but the material has medium sized holes so the gold can quickly flow in. Rapid water works better than flowing, calm water.