Gold Panners focus is always to recover as much gold as they can.  The sluice box is usually the tool of choice, but do you carefully check your black sand for diamonds?  Those funny quartz rocks that get caught around the black sand areas at the end of the sluice.

On occasion I get reports from miners that they get what appears to be quartz rocks trapped in the black sand in their boxes, but, these rocks don't look the same as the other pieces of quartz.

When you are checking your sluice box for fine gold please check the black sand areas for diamonds.

What to look for:

- These stones will be at the very end of your sluice box, just past the black sand areas.

- Diamonds don't wet like normal stones.  Water will bead up and roll off these stones as if they had a Vaseline coating.

- Diamonds come in a range of colors from clear to dark as well as blue and pink.

- They may have bits of rock attached to them indicating they haven't traveled far from their kimberlite source.

It is also worth mentioning that diamonds are worth a lot of money - even the dark ones.  One stone can go for $5,000 easily so it is worth watching for these occasional wonders.  It is like finding a treasure in your sluice box.

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