Start with a gold pan. It's a cheap investment that can be found in most camping and better hardware stores. Make sure it's a plastic one. This way it won't rust, it stays warmer in cold water, and allows you to see the gold better (especially the dark green or black pans). Although the only real tools one needs to pan for gold is a pan, here are some things that will make your expedition more prosperous. These include:
- a gold pan preferably made of dark green or black plastic
- a small garden spade for digging up hard sand and gravel and reaching the layer where gold resides.
- a small, water filled, plastic vile to keep your new-found treasures in
- a turkey baster or ear syringe for getting sand out of rock cracks
- a hard bristled brush also for cleaning out rock cracks
- toothpicks or wooden matches for picking up the gold (see below).
- plastic sealable bags to carry your gold concentrate home for further panning (where there's no bugs, warmer water, and better light).
- a magnet to test for magnetite (a good sign of a gold bearing deposit).
Gold is fairly easy to recognize as it shines like... "gold". There are very few minerals that can be confused with gold (like pyrite, often called "fools gold") but the easiest way to tell them apart is to bend or crush your specimen. If it crumbles, it's not real gold. Gold is extremely ductile. Another important characteristic of gold is its weight. This is important to know in panning as we'll see next.
There are three main rules when looking for placer gold (water carried gold):
- Look where gold has been found before. Chances of finding a new deposit are fairly slim. Ask your local tourist information where to pan for gold in your area.
- Look where rivers slow down: under tree roots, on gravel bars (not sand) and under boulders.
This is where most gold will settle. Remember that gold is very heavy so chances are it will settle in the deepest cracks. That's the reason for the syringe and brushes mentioned above - to get into those cracks! Remember that gold, because of its weight is most often found with stones larger than the gold or down on top of bedrock layers.
- Remove the upper loose gravel and rocks, then dig down while watching for layers. Pan a sample from each layer until you find the layer the gold resides in. Continue to pan that layer. Layers will be either by color change or gravel size.
Remember to keep your eye out for old riverbeds. Many creeks change their course over time so placer gold (water carried gold) isn't always found where there's currently water.
Another easy way to tell if you're getting close to a deposit of gold is that you will find more magnetite in your sand. Magnetite will stick to your magnet (hence the reason for the magnet).
Now that you know where to pan, it's time to learn how to pan. Fill your pan with water and a good lump of sand and dirt. With your hands, break up the lumps of soil (oh goodie, heres where we get to play in the mud). Now shake the pan horizontally or from side to side in a circular motion so the mixture is swirled around. This is the most important part as it allows the gold to sink to the bottom of your pan. Try placing a few pieces of lead in your pan to see if you're doing it right (lead is heavy and should sink). After about 20 seconds, you'll notice the larger pebbles have floated to the top of your mud mess. When the larger rocks begin to float, the heavier ones sink and you know you are doing it right!
Scrape all the loose stones from the top and discard them. Refill the pan with clean water and repeat. Now refill the pan with water once more and (with both hands on the pan) slowly tip the pan away from you while rocking or swirling the pan. If your pan has rifles (grooves) like the one shown above, make sure they are pointed away from you. Each time you swirl the pan, a small amount of gravel should spill over the edge. It's important to keep the pan wet so any gold will settle in the lowest point of the pan.
Gradually continue until only a skim of sand remains in the pan. Now tip the pan level and examine the contents closely. If you did it right, your gold (or lead shot you added for practice) should still be in the pan. There may also me a lot of magnetite in your pan now. Magnetite is the black sand that will stick to your magnet. If you find none of the above, you are either not shaking hard enough at the start or you are shaking too hard at the end of the sand/gravel concentration.
If you see any small gold flakes, the easiest way to pick them up is to carefully drain the water out of your pan, take your toothpick and touch the end to the grain of gold. It will stick to the toothpick! Now immerse it into your sample vial filled with water and the gold will drop off the toothpick in the water! Neat eh?
Once you've picked over the sand and gravel, dump the rest into a plastic bag to take home. This way you can go over it for smaller gold particles at home in your leisure time.
