How to Pan for Gold

Put yourself in the shoes of the tens of thousands of forty-niners who traveled west in search of gold during the wild 1849 California gold rush.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Pans For Gold Panning
• Plastic Pill Vials
• Detailed Local Maps
• Metal Detectors
• Medicine Droppers
• Tweezers
• Tweezers
• Magnets
• Magnifying Glasses

1. Buy a gold pan from a mining supply store. In California's gold country, hardware stores often carry them. Look for one that has riffles - bars or slats - and a catch hole in the bottom, since these help the gold to separate from other particles more easily. Plastic pans are generally preferred over metal pans because they are lighter, have shallower angles (which reduces the risk of gold's being tossed out of the pan), and because gold is easier to spot against plastic than against shiny metal.

2. Before you begin, familiarize yourself with the recreational prospecting regulations of the area in which you wish to pan for gold.

3. Choose a location along a river or creek to pan. Places where the water slows down noticeably, such as behind sandbars or large rocks, are usually good spots for panning. You can also ask park officials or local prospecting organizations for recommendations about the best places to pan.

4. Fill the pan almost to the top with sand from the edge of the creek or river. Try sand from various depths. Use a shovel to dig deeper.

5. Dip the pan's edge into the stream and fill it with water.

6. Hold the pan with one hand and swirl it to mix the sand. Any gold will start settling toward the bottom of the pan.

7. Swirl the pan faster. You will lose some of the water, along with lighter particles of sand, as you go.

8. Begin scraping the top sand out of the pan with your free hand.

9. Continue until much of the pan is empty, leaving only small bits of gold - if you're lucky - in a little water.

10. Use tweezers or a pipette to retrieve tiny gold particles and pick out larger samples with your fingers.

11. Keep all gold samples in plastic vials or sample bottles.

Tips & Warnings

• Try running the sand through a sieve or screen to get rid of larger particles before placing it in your gold pan.
• Pyrite, or fool's gold, looks like the real thing but has no value. There's lots of it out there, and it's fun to find even though it won't make you rich.
• To make sure you've found gold and not fool's gold, rub the stone against something white, like porcelain. If it leaves a black streak, it's fool's gold. If it leaves a yellow streak, it's gold. Gold is also much softer than fool's gold.
• Gold can be found farther downstream from its usual source after heavy rains, since the rush of water dislodges it and carries it away.

[SaraClair]

on 7/28/2009 I can't believe you have only 3 stars on this article. You made a wonderful article for beginners, and to thin of all the steps for this was very difficult. 5 stars.

[credit4you]

on 5/13/2009 Good point Anonymous Gold is heaver then any other material in the dirt or gravel. It settles to the lowest point possible. To get the so called mother load you have to get to the bedrock by moving lots of dirt and rock. The fact that gold is heaver then any other substance in the stream or river it wedges itself tight in cracks with the water current moving other debris over it and forcing it down to the absolute bottom in time. So just panning behind a rock will not produce much gold. Its very hard to pan gold in fast running water so the best time to pan for gold is in the fall when the streams are all low. This makes it easier to get to the spot that the most gravel has been sifted by by the water flow.

[creekwalker01]

on 3/12/2009 Hello,I have been gold prospecting for several years and have found the best location to find gold is where it has been found before. I use a pan,dredge,highbanker,sluce box,metal detector and a spiral panning machine. Being able to read the creek is a major plus as it will save a lot of time and effort in finding gold. visit my webpagehttp://tandtgoldproducts.synthasite.com thanks creekwalker01

[chataugua]

on 11/27/2008 You first need to find a stream that is known to have gold. After that, just sifting gravel at random hoping to find something is unlikely to bear fruit. Read a couple sources on how gold acts/where it settles in a stream. In those places, find areas where bedrock is shallow, get the gravel from right on top of the bedrock.

Be patient in technique with your pan at first til you get it down. You will likely find fools gold before you find your first speck of real gold, but after you get some real gold, you will never confuse the two again.

on 11/22/2005 You should first go to a shallow bed or near rocks. Stay about 1 meter away from rocks or the bed and start panning.