Panning for Gold

The art of gold panning has been being done for a long time now. This was the way that both poor and rich men worked gold ridden ground. Gold panning never required of expensive equipment and does not require a great deal of skill either, however, the more it is practiced the better one gets at it. Anything as simple as a pan for frying could be used for panning. It was as easy as that. The gold pans that are being used these days are sort of shallow circular containers in which the sides slop a little bit out of the bottom. The pans we have are pressed from steel, iron or plastic and are lightweight. It is ideal for a pan to be lightweight in fact as it is easier to manipulate. Make sure the inner surface is smooth and that it does not have any grease on it or rust, even though there are people that have said that some rust and pitting has helped them to catch the gold. The standard size of a gold pan is of sixteen inches in diameter and around 2 and a half inches deep, the rim of the pan is flared outwards at a 50 degree angle from the vertical. There are however, smaller sized pan that are ten inches and twelve inches for example, but these are mainly used for testing the material. Actually, it is suggested that those that are just starting out and do not have any experience at panning, to use the smaller size pans. Those that are considering long term panning should consider getting all the different size pans and mainly focus on the twelve inch one. Once again, before a person uses any type of receptacle for panning, they should heat it over a fire, or have it scoured it thoroughly until there is not any indication of grease on it. In the past there were wooden receptacles that looked like a big salad bowl known as bateas and were very successful in their performance for finding the gold. A skillful person with experience was able to work on around one hundred cubic feet of gravel in one day alone.