You are herePlace to Pan for Gold
Place to Pan for Gold
Once you have the place you want to pan for gold planned out you will need the right equipment an you will need to know a little about how to pan. The first step to panning is to Fill the gold pan about half full of gravel, then submerge it deep enough in water, whether it be from a stream or tub, so it is just under the surface of the water. Next give the pan several vigorous shakes back and forth and from side to side, but not too hard as to wash material out of the pan, you want to shake the gravel so the heavy gold sinks to the bottom of the pan and the less dense rocks and minerals float to the top of the pile in your pan. Then the next step is to change from the shaking motion to a gentle circular movement, so the remaining material starts turning in a circle. This process will cause most of the dirt and clay to dissolve and wash out of the pan. If roots and moss surface, work them over your pan with your fingers to dissolve any lumps. Pick out the larger rocks, pebbles, and debris after making sure that they are washed clean of any mud or sand. You want to try and recover as much gold as possible but you will lose some in the process so don't be to gentle in the operation. Do this until you have the larger rocks and pebbles washed out of the pan. All of these step vary little no matter what place you choose to pan for gold. Now wash away the lighter sand and gravel. Hold the pan just under the water and tilt it slightly away from you. Begin to swirl the water from side to side, with a slight forward tossing motion. Take care, but with sufficient force to move the surface and the lighter gravel out over the edge of the pan. Leveling the pan out from time to time and shaking it back and forth will cause the light material to come to the surface and the gold to settle to the bottom. Keep working the pan until you are down to black sand and color which will be gold. At this point you will want to start carefully working the black sand. Now is the time to slow down and be careful. Leaving just a little water in the gold pan, lift the pan out of the water and use your tweezers to pick out any nuggets and large flakes and place these in your poke. You can use a magnet to separate the magnetite or black sand from the gold. Continue panning the con down until it is about a third gold. As you pan you will notice that the gold will form in a tail behind the black sand. At this time you can clean up the gold with your tweezers and eyedropper. Keep panning until you are out of gold or out of black sand in the bottom of the pan. If the place you chose to pan for gold is good keep at it otherwise you can choose another place to pan and keep at it.
