As you can see, there are a variety of gold pans. Most are either steel or hard plastic, though most people anymore use the plastic variety as they don’t interfere with metal detectors, can be made in a wider variety, are lighter in weight and don’t rust. Plastic pans are usually black or green in color (though some are blue). All show up gold very well though most people seem to prefer the green color. Most places that sell gold pans also sell gold so you can make your own comparison when choosing. Pans also come in a variety of standard sizes, from 8″ to 18″ though the 14″ is the most widely used. The larger 16 to 18 inch pans are rather heavy when filled and the smaller 8 to 12 inch pans are used mostly for sampling or finishing. Other sizes and shapes are available for specialized tasks or simply as decoration.
There are two basic styles for the round pans, one with a large flat bottom and one with a smaller recessed (or drop center) bottom that acts as an extra gold trap. Some people like the larger area in the bottom and some like the extra gold trap. There are also variations of these with a differing number and size of coarse riffles and some with a textured area for final panning. One thinks only of round gold pans but square gold pans are also available. Since they are all usually less that $10 apiece, it is affordable to have a variety.
Gold pans are best used with water, but with practice they can be used for dry panning when no water is available or for sampling. In that case one saves the concentrates and does the final panning with water. This can save a lot of work by not carrying water to the site or packing too much dirt out. This is not a substitute for wet panning as one can only pan down to the heavier black sands which then must be panned with water.
Tips
- If you think you are at a good spot but don’t see any gold after 2 or 3 pans move on and find a different spot. Obvious, easy to reach spots have probably been worked many times and you will not find much.
- For metal gold pans, one has to burn the pan first to eliminate any oils used in manufacture which could cause small gold particles to float. However even with plastic pans one should be careful of oils. Our hands have natural oils which can cause small gold to float. If this problem occurs, a couple of drops of detergent placed in the pan will break the surface tension and allow the gold to sink. Note that even small gold particles will sink very rapidly (like a rock so to speak) whereas other small particles sink more slowly.
