Gold Pans & Classifiers

Metal detectors are fine for finding larger nuggets but what about the smaller bits? And what about a cheaper method to strike it rich? The age old method of finding gold has been panning. You scoop up some of the sediments in the bottom of a gold rich area and separate the gold from the mud and bits of rocks by panning.

Once the sediment is in the pan you keep or add some water and swirl it around, washing away the mud and small rock. Gold pans are ribbed pans with shallow sloping sides. You use the ribs to separate and hold the heavier gold from the sand and materials as you swirl them away.

Use a classifiers to sift out the fines containing gold flakes. Use several different sized of classifiers before you start panning to sort out larger nuggets and debris.