Tricks on Panning for Gold

If you are going to be using a steel pan you will need to make sure you get rid of all the oil in the pan before using it. One very common way of doing this is by “burning” the pan over the coals of a campfire. You can heat the pan up until it has a dull red glow to it and then place it in water. This will cause the oil to be removed and will also give the pan a dark blue color and will help you to be able to see the gold better. If there is still oil left in the pan, it will cause the oil to float in the pan and it will not be possible to separate it.

One thing that can be done to remove any oil that is left on the pan is to have a little bottle of detergent with you. Just place around two drops of detergent in the pan during the last separation and this will case the surface tension of the water to break and it will help to make the process quicker.

Gold can still be found in rivers and streams as storms and winter bring more of it to the surface and it restores the supply continually so don’t get discouraged about it, and be assured that the one of the best ways of finding it is by using a gold pan.

One other very important piece of equipment that is used for prospecting is a panning sieve. The sieve is used to be set over the pan and is able to screen and classify the bigger cobbles and this helps to make the whole process simpler. The gold pan sieves are more accepted with the medium size pans and they can be found in almost any prospecting store that sells equipment for recovering gold.