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How Gold Panning is Done
The fourth step in the gold panning process is very important and it is necessary to pay attention to it and learn it well. By now, you have probably done very well and you might even feel confident about your gold panning skills. However this does not take away that you must always make sure you are very careful about not spilling out the gold from the pan and retaining it in your pan.
There are certain gold pans that have good riffles and that catch more and finer gold than others. Find out about these types of gold pans in your location.
So to continue on with your panning lesson; by now you should have and should be able to see a good amount of black sand and very little pea gravel in it. When this happens, it is no longer as easy for the gold to settle through anymore because the black sand is tightly packed. The material you have in your pan will be around as much concentrate you would get from a sluice box.
You probably by now see why speed panning is not recommended especially when you have heavy concentrations of black sand and creek gravel in the pan. Doing this will only make the job much more difficult and will not allow the gold to settle down on the bottom successfully. Although there are gold pans that will enable clean up process a lot quicker, it is highly suggested you keep or save all of the gold and not just some of it. It would not be very smart to have been working on it all day to only then carelessly throw out all the contents that could have gold in it.
Sometimes in mining country when there are black sand concentrates that are panned back into a bucket or another container with water in it, it is very difficult to get the gold to settle down through the black sand. What is sometimes done in these cases is that the prospectors add a few teaspoons of chlorine bleach in the water. This is done because it cuts the surface tension of the natural oil on the gold and helps it to settle down to the bottom. As you continue working bare in mind that your concentrates might also be full of dense black sand.
After your pan has around two or three cups of gravel and concentrates, make sure to keep it under water or partly full of water, make sure to swirl it under the water or to shake it so that the concentrates settle. Then tilt the pan downwards, opposed to you, and shake the pan from side to side with maybe a little bit of forward of little bit of a side to side motion and some forward motions as well while allowing the light sand and pebbles to wash away. You will also want to make sure to tilt the pan upward and backward toward your body a good amount. Doing this will ensure the concentrates go back down to the bottom of the pan and will help to keep them there in place, while at the same time preventing an accident of losing gold from happening.
Make sure to observe the pan very well as the black sand starts to become evident through the light colored sand and the little pebbles in the pan. As soon as you start to see the black sand it means it is time to resettle the contents in the pan back to the bottom. You should continue doing this while at the same time using the side to side motions (Very gently) or if you have acquired another way of doing it that is fine too, and then allow the lighter materials to slip over the edge of the pan. Something else that people commonly do is to dip the contents under the water and then rise the pan up very quickly as this allows the water to take away the lighter material. This same thing is done with conventional pans and is used by professionals etc.
Every once in a while you will see that there are heavier rocks that will simply not move without interfering and even endangering the contents and concentrates that are left in the gold pan. All you have to do is hold the pan and the contents inside of it under water and make sure the pan is tilted downward, then very carefully push off the heavier rocks off with the hand that is free. You should not eliminate any gold this way that is, if the contents are under water so make sure the water is present, it’s very important.
Remember that the more you practice each step the better you will get at it. Becoming familiar with the tools you will be using such as your gold pan, shovel, etc, will help you to become more experienced and more confident with how you are accomplishing the job. All experienced gold panners have a sixth sense and know when the gold has settled down to the bottom and they use this as an indicator to tell them when it is time to dump off the first top of the pan. You will most likely feel that you have lost some gold when you do this the first time, we all felt the same way, but if you pan it again you can be assured that you did not lose any gold. Just remember to always have the riffles on the pan in a downward position and directly across from your body as this will ensure you are not losing your gold.
So now you should have around one or two cups of pure concentrates in your gold pan; the concentrates will consist of black sand, the gold, and perhaps even other gems and metals. You can place these concentrates in another pan or another container and then pan them later on in your home.
