After practicing a while, everyone develops their own personal technique for gold panning. Some vigorously shake the pan, some gently swish it from side to side. There are about as many different techniques, tips, and tricks as there are types of gold pans! In truth, there is no real "right" way to pan for gold-- if you're gettin' a flash in the pan, you're doing it right! If you're just getting started, though, and don't know where to begin, follow these easy steps and before long, you will develop your own methods:
1. Fill pan about half full of gravel, small rocks, and sand collected from the stream bed
2. Put the pan under the water's surface, break up large lumps of clay or dirt, and remove stones
3. Continue to hold the pan level under the water with your hands on opposite sides, and tilt the pan forward, away from your body, and down slightly. Rotate and shake it side to side to let gravel and sand dribble out the front. Pick out the rocks.
4. Repeat step 3 several times until most of the material is removed, leaving less than a cup of fine-grained dark material overlain with a thin layer of light material at the bottom of your pan.
5. Rotate the pan in a circular motion. Notice how the water separates lighter material from heavier.
6. Stop rotating and hopefully you'll see a flash in the dark material remaining in the bottom of your pan! Use tweezers to retrieve the gold and place in a vial for safe-keeping.
Good luck!
