A question about panning....

[G-bone]

Ok, I've been working on my panning for a little while now.
After watching many videos and applying some good stuff, I feel confident in my technique.

But the basic principal is - Swirl it all, shake it down, and peel the lights.
Repeat again - bring it all into the pan and swirl it all, shake it down, peel the lights.
and keep going till you can clean it up.

But one thing is kind of puzzling me....

I have heard and read many times that after you have gone thru the initial thorough stratifying process, Swirl real good with lots of water, then go to a good side to side motion, shaking the material to a fluid state, and getting your materials down into the corner of your pan at that 45ish degree angle. throw in some tapping etc..
Any gold in your pan is at the bottom. Done....

So you peal layers of the lights off and ready to swirl again.
But then my question comes up...
Why do you need to bring all your material back into the pan and start the whole major swirling motion all over again?

The Gold is at it's lowest point already.
It has not moved as you peel away the top layers of lights.
So why stir it all up again and again.
I notice I can just give a nice little vibration to the pan as it sits in the corner still, and watch the lights float right up to peel them off again.

Am I missing something?

Cheers

G

 

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[Buckshotnc]

This process will keep bringing the lights to the top, if you will notice as you take off the lights it will leave mostly black looking sands however there are still light sand in the pan so by recirculating you will notice that now the lights or brown sand will again come to the top and you keep washing it off till all that is left is black sand and your gold. As you pan and move the lights off the top at a angle and then pull back and twirl the water over the material with the front of the pan up you can wash the lights in the pan toward you in the lower part of the pan and backwash so to speak by splashing a little water up in the edge of the pan before mixing your material up again. However be cautious that you don't wash any small gold out using the backwash method.

 

[Dig'em]

Spot on Buckshotnc

 

[goldenmojo]

Ok, I've been working on my panning for a little while now.
After watching many videos and applying some good stuff, I feel confident in my technique.

But the basic principal is - Swirl it all, shake it down, and peel the lights.
Repeat again - bring it all into the pan and swirl it all, shake it down, peel the lights.
and keep going till you can clean it up.

But one thing is kind of puzzling me....

I have heard and read many times that after you have gone thru the initial thorough stratifying process, Swirl real good with lots of water, then go to a good side to side motion, shaking the material to a fluid state, and getting your materials down into the corner of your pan at that 45ish degree angle. throw in some tapping etc..
Any gold in your pan is at the bottom. Done....

So you peal layers of the lights off and ready to swirl again.
But then my question comes up...
Why do you need to bring all your material back into the pan and start the whole major swirling motion all over again?

The Gold is at it's lowest point already.
It has not moved as you peel away the top layers of lights.
So why stir it all up again and again.
I notice I can just give a nice little vibration to the pan as it sits in the corner still, and watch the lights float right up to peel them off again.

Am I missing something?

Cheers

G

The gold is at the bottom of the pan but as you tip your pan to shed the lights the gold will move forward and jump riffles. Too hard of a pull on the pan or too hard of any swirling motion and you can lose gold. The gold doesn't always stay down either. Very small gold can catch the surface and create a floating gold slick of many pieces when you are down to just gold in your pan. Also very flat thin flakes can boat themselves across pan lake given a chance.

 

[goldenmojo]

I guess the thing I forgot was speed. If you carefully pan with only slight vibrations you will probably be somewhat safe. The next part of it is how long does it take you to work a full pan of gravel laden material down to the gold If it takes you 15 minutes that is 4 pans per hour. Not overly productive. If you can clear a pan in three minutes top to bottom that's 20 pans an hour. If you get three specs per pan that is 60 per hour. No matter how much you get it is the basic skill you should have for sampling and cleanouts. When you get out to the creeks and rivers of Cal you will enjoy your skill. Good Luck.

 

[G-bone]

"I see", said the blind man..
LOL! (drives my kids crazy when I say that)
Points made.

Thank you.

 

[goldenmojo]

Ha that's a good one. Much luck to you in your panning adventures. Hope you find plenty o gold.

 

[Jason in Enid]

The biggest aid to panning is classification. Panning is about stratification by weight. It's soooo much easier to keep the tiny specs of gold in the bottom if you don't have big rocks knocking them around. If you don't have big nuggs in your area, don't let big gravel in the pan.

 

[goldog]

An Important point. Panning dirt you can go rather quick. If you are working concentrates you've got to go much slower.