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11, August

How To Pan For Gold. This introduction on gold panning basics will teach you step by step on how to find color in the bottom of your pan. We assume you know what a gold pan is or you wouldn't be here, but some people might not realize the purpose behind the pan. To most they think that a prospector(someone who looks for gold) would sit all day on bent knees swishing the creek for "color" (miner term for gold). This usually is not the case, although it did happen for the lone miner who didn't want to attract much attention. Now adays with sophisticated methods of attracting gold the best use for panning is to find the gold by panning and then extracting dirt to pan later, or using a sluice, rocker box, or other faster method to extract larger gold.

So to get started we will talk about the methods. The trick to gold panning is to get a good swirling motion and letting a little dirt spill out the edge on each rotation. What happens is since gold is heavy it sinks to the bottom of the pan, but if you do it wrong your paydirt can lose gold out the top! Gently move your elbows, not your wrists, in elongated imaginary circles. Each time you swirl the water around once, let a little water and dirt spill out of the gold pan. Not too much. Keep the pan slightly tilted at an angle.

Below in the video tutorial, it will show you some more great tips and techniques to get you started and will allow you the ability to see a professional in action as they pan. Then read our section on learning how to pan with lead pellets.