Panning advice

[ozziii]

Hey everyone, just after a little advice on panning if possible. Got myself a medium size pan & wouldn't mind trying it out but have only ever used a pan once back when I was in high school, must of been nearly 30 years ago.
Is there any specific way I should move the pan & how much dirt or gravel stuff should I put in, also, when I dig some dirt/gravel, should I dig a deep hole & then pan stuff from the bottom of the hole or is it worth panning the stuff on top as well.
Thanks for any help.

 

[silver]

couple of leads for you oziii
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=7106
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=6233
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4539
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2202

 

[Diggertom]

Alright for the actual movement of the pan, videos are the go but best advice is always keep your pan on the same angle, which is slanted towards the ground away from you. You wanna get the gold to go to the lowest point as possible and keep it there.

Then it's a matter of just agitating the meterial and slowly washing off the top layers.

As for where to pan from, test pan every level of the hole, if you don't get a flake, go another half foot deeper. Generally the gold will be closer to the bottom, but there may be flood layers in there with good gold so I tend to not discard until I know what I'm working with. There's been many of time where the top layers have had a lot more then the bottom.

Allot of people will practice with just general soil and bits of lead to start with, you can ever paint your lead and smash and cut it up Into different sizes and shapes to get a feel for how it moves. It stays in the pan just as gold does. If your losing lead, good chance you'll lose gold.

Also if you can get a classifier or make one, it makes it a hell of a lot easier as the big rocks your generally have to remove by hand. Make sure to always give the classifier a quick check for the nugs and gemstones depending on the area.

And practice makes perfect!

Tom

 

[ozziii]

Thanks for the info & help fella's, I also downloaded them books in the links so will have a read through them, that will keep me busy for a while I think. Now just have to wait for the next lot of good weather & get out & give it a go.

 

[Twapster]

I often fill my pan pretty full, dunk the entire pan in the river and get everything fluid and turning the pan back and forth like using a steering wheel left and right. Gold is very heavy and will start to sink much faster than the other material just make sure everything is in suspension. Then the main aim is to start skimming layers from the top using water, don't be too rough at the beginning just gently make the water peel off the top soil and rocks, dunk more water in, shake and turn the pan again and repeat the process.

Within a few times of doing that, most of your gold will now be sitting on the bottom of the pan. BE PATIENT. While gold is heavy, you will rarely get big pieces and you need to continue the skimming until almost all of your soil/clay/pebbles are gone (maybe 2 tablespoons of soil left from a full pan)........you may think there's no gold in the pan and then all of a sudden you notice a spec or two sitting in the corner of the pan. If you can use your imagination try thinking where all the heavies should be....and they will probably be there. As Tom has indicated practicing with lead can be done at home and allows you to understand what heavy stuff does in the pan.

Once you have not much soil left you can do the "reveal"...the fun part in panning where you swish extremely gently normally anti clockwise and the gold stays put while the dirt swishes away with the water.

Everyone has their own panning method and they all work on the same principle. Don't feel shy about how you pan, we all do it different. Even if you use a classifier you may get some stones in your pan, just pick them out as required but make sure if its a heavy piece of rock in your pan, it may have some gold attached, and you can also find sapphires etc.

In Gold areas I have often found more near the surface than digging too deep....clay layers are often what has the gold sitting on top of that layer....poke around the river rocks and you see grey clay just under them after a bit of digging around, you will more than likely be finding gold soon! Good luck out there.

 

[ozziii]

Thanks Twapster, now I just need to get out & give it a good go. Seems every time I go out with the detector lately it starts raining about an hour later but atleast that might be putting some water in the creeks for panning.