Question about quick panning techniques

[Capricorn]

Soooo I've got a question.. How careful do i need to be when panning? Say I make sure the material in my pan is broken up, and then I stratify it really well (30 seconds, a minute, etc..), can I then safely remove the top 75% of material? Just pouring it out while stratifying, or sliding out the top of the material with my hand. After stratifying well all the gold should be on the bottom yes? How long should it take to pan down pan full of material (not concentrate cleaning)?

Thanks for any feed back.

 

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[GrizzlyGremlin]

It really depends on how small of gold your looking to capture. Coarse nuggets and pickers go right to the bottom in the first 5 seconds and you can pan all the material away. If you want to see ALL the gold care must be taken. I classify to 8 mesh and pan slowly only removing blonde sands. Classifying is just as important as panning technique. As far as time goes. It varies but straight gravel shouldnt take you more than 2-5 min tops. Cons can take 5-20min per pan depending on how much black sand.

 

[Capricorn]

Right now I'm panning for flood gold, so a big piece is a real small flake. Haven't found a picker yet! I'm seeing some gold that seems smaller then your average piece of black sand. Maybe 100- or something..

I classified everything down to 3/8th maybe..

 

[Capricorn]

I went through a few more pans, slower on the second one, and I found my biggest piece yet. A flake in the shape of a triangle, maybe 1mm on each edge, and a little depth. I could actually push it around easy in the pan with my finger!

 

[Capricorn]

Here is a video that escentially shows what I was thinking about. He claims it's a sampling technique to speed things up. It's right around 5:00 in the video:



Incidentally I was looking for any good descriptions of good ways to locate pay streaks. Feel free to point me at any info you might know about.

I've panned down about 3 or 4 gallons of classified material now, and have found 20-30 flakes or specks. That triangle one I mentioned is the largest still. This is all from a gravel bar and would be flood gold I believe. I have found that my panning has gotten a lot quicker, and it probably only takes me 2 or 3 minutes to pan down a few cups of material now. I should mention about my classification, I classified to 3/8th at the river, then I classify to 1/8 in my pan at home.

 

[MadMarshall]

I can not say I agree with the sampling methods or his panning advice.. It has been in my experience that prospecting for a pay streak or lode is not an easy thing. The best advice I can give you learn how to read your gold.. This can be done by size, shape, discoloration on the gold..Does your gold have rounded edges? Or sharp? does your gold have rock or quartz stuck to it.. Every piece of gold holds a clue to where it could have came from.. This is my opionion!!! Prospecting for a source or a actual paystreak is very time consuming.. Loaming is a very usefull tool and I stand buy it 100% Panning is an acquired art and only time and what is confortable for you will make it easier.. But I will say that I wouldn't put much stock in that gentlemens video.. The idea of sampling for gold is to find out how much gold is their..people often mistake sampling for gold as if they were actually sampling for gold!! But truth is you already new gold was at your location. So what are you sampling for? Sampling is only done when looking for gold at a place that gold has yet to be found or looking for gold in payable quanties.. Anyone and I mean anyone can find GOLD!!! it's really not that hard at all but when you are looking for payable gold sources that is where it gets tricky... The best thing you can do is prospect spend time getting to know every inch of your area.. Time and persistence will make you or break you...anyway their are just to many indicators and information for me to relay and every prospector may say something different in these matters find out what works and pays for you..

I have been working this pay area for a month or so the payable gold is found in the bedrock and is about a 3-5 foot wide and I have traced it up as high 30ft from the river... I have found payable gold almost 2-3 feet deep in the cracks an crevices of the bedrock. I suspect it goes deeper though I can't work it as it's will be under the water table..And the rains are coming soon and I must finish the bottom section before it goes underwater.. As you can see most the cracks and cevices don't exsist anymore!!

 

[Capricorn]

Thanks Marshall. I really appreciate your advice, info and opinions. I didn't really get much out of that guys video, but it demonstrated specifically what I was wondering about, dumping a lot of my pan out, since the gold should be at the bottom. I guess I don't feel like i need to as much anymore, since I feel like I'm panning a lot quicker then I was earlier.

I regards to locating pay streaks, I guess what I'm finding is we have flood gold around in the gravel bars. But if I'm going to be washing gravel bars and digging sand, I want to be doing it in the highest paying spot. I guess just sampling in a line across the top and bottom of the bar, each sample from about 2 feet a part, ought to show me where the streak would start and end, then I can just shoot in a straight line between them. Oh well.. I guess the answer is just sample sample sample, then sample some more I've been going to know gold producing areas, and finding small flecks of flood gold. I guess I'm just trying to figure out how I can up my game and find myself some pickers

 

[Aufisher]

Get down to bedrock. Break rocks and crevice for bigger gold. Do what MM does!

 

[B H Prospector]

I agree with Marshal. also that clown in the video may have been racking off a chispa the way he carelessly threw the large rocks off. Always check the quartz even when sampling.

Good Luck!

BH Prospector