Don't take this the wrong way but, it is hard for me to imagine "production panning" down to a whole bucketful of concentrates when the whole object of the process is to not do that. Black sands and gold will stratify below the lighter blonde sands and pebbles and those are pretty easy to pan off (without losing gold) before you add more pay dirt, re-stratify and pan off the waste...over and over again until the pan has a significant amount of heavies mostly consisting of black sands. That is the point where you should dump (still probably less than a cupful) then start the process again. This is based on what I consider a usual stream environment where the black sands usually are a very minor component of the stream make up and it takes many pan fulls of feed to collect much more than a cupful of almost pure black sand concentrate. I have found trying to concentrate ocean beach sand by production panning is a futile effort as virtually all of it is minus 100 mesh to begin with and impossible to keep in semi suspension. That and I begin with sand that is already concentrated by the ocean....lake sand may be different but probably with a starting point of much less than a half pan at a time in order to be able to keep everything in semi-suspension so heavies can settle.
Good luck.
Not taken the wrong way at all.
I used the phrase "production panning" to convey generally what I'm doing, and you understood. I know I ain't doing it quite right....Simply because I don't wanna.
Honestly.....I'm in Michigan. I'm realistic enough to know gold prospecting here is something that's possible, but more fun when it's taken in a lighthearted fashion.
It's something I do from time to time, to kill a little time while I wait for the reaper.
On a hot summer day, I plop my butt down in a creek, or on a specific beach. I scoop the pan full, classifying to 1/8", and I pan it down some. Then I scoop it full again, and pan, and scoop, and pan and I splash and I play in the water till eventually, I get bored. I dump the pan into a bucket and I crack a beer. Then, I relax a while, and when the beer's gone I go back to the pan.
Pan....Beer....Pan....Beer....you get it, and I have a good time.
After a couple hours I have a 3 gallon bucket, about 2/3 full of classified and somewhat concentrated material.....That weighs 40 pounds and I have to lug to the car.
What I would like, is rather than the bucket, to dump the pan into my LeTrap, recirculating on the bank of the creek. But that's just an inconvenient mess of stuff to haul out in the woods.
So I'm looking at options that would be somewhat smaller, handle the cup of material I dump from the pan, and further concentrate the material with little effort on my part, and do a fairly reliable job of not losing what little bit of gold I may find.
Just kinda finding "my way" I suppose.
