Panning and fine gold

Ok so I can see very fine gold in my pan when I get the last part of the wash left but cant separate it out.My question is,is my technique
crap or is their a trick to this.I tried a little detergent but didnt help.Or maybe it isnt gold at all.Any ideas?

Hi Kingfish,

Separating very fine gold from dirt takes a lot of practice, but it can be done. Most of us in the field put the "heavy tailings" into a pot to sort out at home on a rainy day. Saves a lot of valuable time in the field.

When panning you have to lap the water very gently to move the dirt from the fine gold. If you have clay silt, I let the water lap the silt and every now and then push any gold that has moved down back up the pan with my finger, and repeat the process, eventually leave fairly clean gold.

If you pan with a plastic pan, and have a lot of black sand with the fine gold, use a magnet to move the black sand away from the gold, leaving it free to collect. You will have to do that process several times, as a lot of the fine gold will be dragged along with the black sand. Some folk do this while the dirt is wet or dry.

You can also use a cotton bud to pick up the fine specks and then dripping and shaking the end of the cotton bud in a glass of water.

Cheers
Mrs Fly

G'day Kingfish.

I'd have to agree with FLY_Dirt on this one.If you've taken it down to black sand ,and I mean black sand only,left in your pan with some colour.Then dry it out fully in the sun.Now black sand being slightly magnetic,get your self one of those 10 dollar super magnets.Once your sand and fine gold are completely dry,hover over the black sand spreading it with your magnet.The magnet should pick up all your black sand leaving you the fine gold behind.Just remember,the magnet wont pick any type of fine sand,in the form of minerals,[such as of the gemstone grade] so make sure that the last tail in the final pan off,consist of black sand and gold only or as close to that as you can get it.
I couldn't and will not recommend the separation & extraction of gold via the mercury process,[which is a hell of allot more accurate] due to the dangerous mercury vapors created upon boiling point of the mercury, whilst leaving only the gold behind.


Cheers kon61

Hi kingfish
get your self one of these

http://gpex.ca/ads/gotcha.html

you can see them on youtube
or even make one from bits out of the shed in the back garden