How Gold Panning Works

Washing the gold over the side of the pan might seem like it is a bit risky however with a little bit of practice you will be able to recover almost all the gold. You can use a wide mouth jar or plastic container. Pour a little bit of water in the pan and swirl the black sand and gold until the gold shows up like a tail on the edge of the black sand. This is simply another way of panning and due to the fact that the gold is heavier, it moves slower around the bottom edge of the pan. After you have well defined the difference between the gold and sand, you will need to tilt he pan so that the water runs off towards the middle. Then put your thumb over the black sand and allow to the water to go back to this corner of the pan. A little bit of shoving and tilting of the pan will help the gold to separate and then this can be poured over the edge with the water into the plastic jar or container. After you have done this, allow the gold to settle in for one day and when the water from several pans begins to fill the jar it can easily be poured off to allow more room without losing gold. Afterwards, when the jar has a good amount of gold is can be moved to a smaller bottle where it can be stored the right way until it is displayed or sold.

After you pour the gold out of the pan you will probably notice that some color sticks to the sides of the pan and they may be mixed with the black sand. This is difficult to separate sometimes and it might take some time to do but it can be done with some patience.  

Another thing that should be said as far as separating the black sand after you are done panning is that there is a special way to do this, it may sound a little bit complicated but once you get the hang of it you will see that it is not difficult. Start out by getting your plastic bottle and place some water inside of it. The gold and sand mixture should still be in the wide mouthed container. Mix it around by swirling it so that you are able to expose some of the flakes of gold. You will then need to use a camel’s hair brush by wetting the tip and then ladle up one or more of the flakes of gold on the tip of the camel’s hair brush. After you have done this process very gently carry the gold flakes on the brush to the little bottle you previously prepared and dunk the brush in it. This will cause the gold to fall off into the water.

In many cases gold flakes are found in magnetic sand and if this is your case, you can make first sort the sand out in a wide plastic container by moving the small magnet around under the container. You should use the magnet three times when dealing with black sands because the small flakes have a tendency of being picked up by the magnet each time you pass over it. The magnetic sand will follow the magnet but the gold will not, therefore this will allow you to get most of the sand off. This will then allow you to get to the gold with the brush.