This material would consist of the large boulders, rocks, sticks, logs, and any other debris that gets picked up by the boom. As the buckets drop material into the hull, it is sifted through a sieve to remove the larger non-gold bearing materials. The hull is basically a floating factory where several men can work inside of it. The material is brought into the main part of the dredge called the hull. The boom is angled down into the earth and digs up a continuous supply of gravels to be processed. Picture a series of metal scoops about the size of a bathtub, designed to go around in a continuous loop similar to a huge chainsaw. The front of the dredge is comprised of a series of huge metal buckets called the boom. The basic design of a bucket line dredge is relatively simple. Today most are just relics of the past in various stages of decay. While they were extremely efficient and cost effective to operate, they caused irreparable damage to riparian areas. Today, most of them are out of commission and lay dormant. They were used extensively throughout the world during the early gold rushes in the U.S. Not to be confused with the suction dredge used by many gold prospectors today, a bucket line dredge is a giant gold processing machine that can move literally tons of material in a short amount of time.

Mining dredges