Dredging is an old form of mining for ore that has actually been banned in most nations due to the environmental impact it causes. Although this method has on the whole been on the decline and practically outlawed, small sale dredging is still very much in practice. Small to medium scaled miners have created suction dredges that are quite easy to operate and less damaging to the environment. Suction dredges are small machines that are operated by motor pumps that are attached to a sluice box and set afloat by ‘floats or pontoons’. A hose that is attached to the suction motor pump is guided by a miner along the river bed that sucks debris from the bottom and transports it to the sluice box that works as a filter that segregates the heavier elements contain in the debris that was ‘picked’ up by the pump from the lighter material that is washed away into the stream by the sluice box.
Apart from this form of dredging, the larger more environment unfriendly dredging methods that destroy vast areas ecologically are under very tight scrutiny by state and federal laws alike throughout the world. In the United States of America for example dredging in states require permits that specify when it would be an appropriate time to conduct dredging operation so as to not interfere with fish spawning seasons. In other countries similar permits are required to allow the immediate environment breathing space to recuperate from the dredging that was conducted.
These dredges include the some of the largest suction dredges that are employed by mining corporations to mine gold for gold buyers and gold refiners throughout the world. Commercial production of gold has had a devastating impact on the environment in the past 100 years as humans dig deeper and dredge harder in their quest for gold. Although these huge suction dredges are good for finding large particles of gold smaller suction dredges are found to be much more efficient at extracting smaller gold particles. The usage of these miniature dredges has increased the chances for prospectors to finding gold with the omission of any environmental impact. These suction dredges which are attached with a suction hose that are approximately 2 to 4-inch in the width and about ten meters in length are perfect tools to sample crevices or areas that are hard to touch like the back of huge rocks.