Instruction on How to Pan for Gold

Prior to truly starting to process your first pan full of gold, gems, etc, check around and see what would be the best spot for you to pan in. You should consider finding a spot that has a least six inches deep of water and a place where the water is flowing just enough in order to keep the muddy water from not letting you see your pan; you will also want to find a spot where you can sit down in comfortably.

First Step:
Washing Big Rocks and Moss

• Take your gold pan and fill it up to ¾ of gravel. This will then need to be immersed in the water deep enough so that it is just under the surface34 of the water. While it is submersed you will need to give it several energetic shakes back and forth and from side to side, however make sure you do not do this too energetically to where you end up washing the material out from inside the pan. 
• After having shaken the pan you will then need to start gently moving the pan with a circular movement; the gravel and material inside should start spinning in a circle. What this does is it makes most of the dirt and clay dissolve and washes out the pan. If after having done this you see that moss and roots go up to the top, you can mash them over your pan with your fingers so that you can break up the lump they have in them. You can then take out the bigger rocks after you have made sure they are clean.
• Next, the same process will need to be done again in order to get the smaller rock up to the top and make the concentrates that are heavier to settle down.

Second Step:
How to Wash off Gravel and Lighter Sand

• In order to do this you will want to hold the pan right underneath the water and slightly tilt it away from you. Then you will need to swirl the water from one side to the other and give it a little bit of a forward motion. Before careful but use enough force to move the top and lighter gravel out over the edge of the pan.
• Level the pan every once in awhile and shake it back and forth so that the lighter material goes up to the surface and the heavier material stays on the bottom of the pan.
• Continue to do this process around two more times until there is only around two cups of heavier material left in the gold pan. The material that will be left on the bottom of the pan is what is known as concentrate or black sand.

Third Step:
How to Wash off Black Sand and Concentrates
It would probably be best if you were to take the pan completely out of the water and leave only around one inch of water in it. Then slant the pan a little bit towards yourself and whirl the water in circular motions very slowly to see if there are any nuggets and pieces of gold that you can pick up with your hand.

After this, submerge the pan back into the water and do the second step again to get the final concentration. This is one of the most important parts of the panning. You will need to assure the last process is done as carefully as possible so that you do not end up getting rid of the gold.

If you are using a plastic pan, you can use a magnet in order to help with the separation of the gold from the concentrate and black magnetic sand.

In order to use the magnet place it on the bottom side of the pan and move the magnet in little circular motions while you tilt the pan slightly at the same time; doing this will cause the gold to separate from the black sand.