Let’s Go Gold Panning
Gold! It captivates us and is used in many ways: money, jewelry, dentistry, high-tech electronics. Did you know gold foil protects spacecraft from the sun’s rays and an astronaut’s helmet visor has a thin coating of gold? Now you do! And did you also know it’s easy to collect your own gold? Starting with a pan and a little luck, here’s how.
Success in gold panning comes down to selecting the right location where gold is known to occur, then taking advantage of gravity.
Gold is heavy. If gold is tossed about in a river with sand and gravel (known as “paydirt”), it will settle to the bottom of the riverbed beneath the gravel. Your job, then, is to scoop up some of that paydirt and swirl it with water in a gold pan. Just as it did in the river, the gold in your pan will sink to the bottom, so you must work your way down.
First, fill your pan half full with paydirt and all the way full with water. Reach in and mix up the water and paydirt. Larger pieces of gravel may have mud with embedded gold attached, so make sure to wash them clean, then toss away those larger stones. Now it’s time to bring in gravity!
Shake your pan in a swirling, side-to-side motion for as long as 30 seconds to help the gold settle to the bottom. Then shake and swirl and tilt your pan to let the water pour out. Go slowly and patiently, so no gold escapes. Submerge your pan back in the water and swirl it some more, and gradually pour out the water, this time along with some gravel and sand. One section of your pan should have little step-like grooves. These are called riffles. You want to pour your gravel and sand out over them. The riffles will help catch and keep gold in your pan.
You’ll repeat this step, and each time, swirling and tapping your pan to keep the gold at the bottom. Eventually, all gravel and light-colored sand will be gone, and what will be left is a small amount of “black sand.” This sand is composed of heavy minerals, like pyrite, hematite, magnetite, garnet—and gold.
With just a small amount of water in your pan, swirl slowly and back-tilt the pan. The black sand should wash off, leaving little flakes of gold and—if you are very lucky—little nuggets, too! These can be picked out with fingertips, tweezers, an eyedropper, or a squeeze bottle and carefully deposited into a small bottle filled with water.
If you are fortunate to live near gold-bearing streams, this is a fun field trip adventure. If gold fields are far away from your home, you can pan in your own backyard. Many companies sell bags of paydirt. Go to the web and enter “gold paydirt.” When yours arrives, fill a tub with water and set to work with a gold pan. It’s a cool, fun (and profitable) way to spend a hot and sunny day.