Third Step to Dry Panning

Once you have obtained one or two cups of material inside your pan you will now need to hold your pan with one hand and slowly tilt it downwards. When doing this make sure the riffle traps are in the lower part of the pan. You should use the other free hand to slowly hit the top edge of the pan huskily. Bang it sharply as this will cause the bumping action to make the heavier pieces of metal down to the bottom of the pan. The concentrates that are heavier will also crawl up to the side of the pan as the bumping action takes place. Gradually increase the way you are tilting the pan (downward) as this will cause the lighter material to gradually slip down and off the lower edge of the pan. Nonetheless be careful to not tilt the pan too rapidly because it will not let the gold settle down all the way. This will need to be done very slowly as this will allow the gold to settle all the way and will then cause it to crawl upwards back towards you.

If you do not feel completely sure while doing this, simply tilt the pan upwards again and group the material back together and start the process over again. You may at times be able to see black sand concentrates that might have settled or gotten trapped in the riffles when you bring the material back to the bottom of the pan. Just go on with practicing as this will give you the needed self-assurance and gradually you will see that you will get faster at it. Continue bumping the pan and slipping off the unwanted debris until you are left with only a little bit of concentrates. Remember that you should not try to pan the dry concentrates down as cleanly as you would in wet panning.