Place the gold-bearing material in the gold pan. Tilt under flowing water (a stream is ideal, a shallow container will do), allowing sediment to be carried away.

Lift the pan from the water and tilt slightly to the left. Shake the pan so that the material forms a “V” between the bottom and sides of the pan and most, but not all, of the water spills out.

Still shaking the pan, tilt it toward you and slowly rotate it counterclockwise. Scrape out larger and lighter rocks and gravel that drift to the lower left end (this is merely waste material).

Now is where the skill comes into play. Add more water, slowly swirl water in a circular clockwise direction, and at the same time, turn the pan between your two hands counterclockwise, gently sloshing out more and more of the waste material and water. What’s left will be a measure of black sand, nuggets, flakes and tiny specks of gold. Repeat this process until only the gold is left in the bottom of the pan.

Back

Panning is where the prospector gets the gold.

This is where the skill that comes from many hours of practice comes into play.

The more skill you have the faster you are able to extract the gold from your material.

Trust your skill and your tools. With practice you should be able to extract color from a 14" pan in under a minute.

The main thing about searching for gold is that the more material you process the more gold you will recover.

Sluicing

Weekend Outing