Here's part of a few pages I used to send out to our club members for final panning technique, may help a bit.
*NOTE* Before you start the panning procedure please have a catch basin to pan into and make sure the material is thoroughly wetted and allowed to soak for a minute or two if starting from dry concentrates, adding a drop of dish detergent will help to keep surface tension down as well and can help to avoid surfing material in the pan itself.
1) Work with as little water as possible, in a standard 14? pan I like around ?? to ? of an inch of water only, you may find you need more.
2) I start by shaking gently (2? off center, 4? stroke) back and forth with 1 hand holding the pan with the palm facing out and up, my thumb hung over the lip of the pan and all fingers spread out evenly to support the outside of the pan, you will find that this method makes a fulcrum out of your wrist. Try to maintain a slight tilt to the pan away from you.
3) Once shaken for awhile (20-30 seconds or longer) start the water to swirl very gently in a counter-clockwise motion, make sure to keep the water moving the same direction and the slower you go the better your recovery will be. You will start to see the sands wash down to the bottom of the pan (6 o?clock position).
4) You can remove the spent black sands by holding the pan upright and dipping it into the catch basin only deep enough to wet the material you have washed down to the bottom.
5) I would then repeat this over and over until there is nothing remaining except the gold and the platinum.
Be very careful with the platinum, it is tricky to see at times because it doesn?t contrast as well as the gold against the black sands. It can be tough to distinguish at first, keep in mind it can be very small, but always 3 dimensional and will move around the pan easily.
I should also suggest that you don?t use a magnet to separate your material, the platinum is slightly magnetic and if chromite is attached it will remain charged and become very hard to separate from the black sands, no matter how careful you are you will capture fine gold in with the magnetics. If losing a little gold is ok then by all means use the magnet.
I think the proper panning techn. for getting down to concentrates is all over the net but final panning is something that is hard to find.
Take care, have fun, Chris
