what is proper way to pan - seperate gold from sands

Hi, I am hoping some on can help me. I have never panned and have a green plastic pan with some ripples on about 1/4 of it. it is about 15" across.
We went out over weekend and detected a creek just behind where we live. We got some signals but could not find them, they were that small we think that they were only registering when the skid plate on the 11"mono touched them. We put some gravel in bucket where we thought we were getting signals and came home. Yesterday afternoon i filled the wheel barrow with water and tried to pan gravel.
We took these pictures of gold in the pan but I cannot get sample any cleaner. I am slowly swirling and moving pan sideways to get gold to bottom edge. We got most of sand out of pan but the gold wants to go with the sand (quartz) and black coloured sand.
I did smash some of the gravel in a dolly pot with crowbar to make smaller before I panned it.
The gold looks jaggard and wirey. Some of it is big enouth to register on detector (GPX4500) when it touches coil. It just wants to follow with the sand. I always thought that gold would stay behind like a tail but this will not, it must be wrong tecnique. I have not been able to find a video of panning to watch how is done.
I have put picture of a sample in the pan. (trying to get picture on this)


I'm impressed with what is in pan and now want to get a sluise or them things that you put dirt in the top and run water over it and go out there evenings and have a crack at it.
cheers travelergold

travelergold. Panning is relatively simple, Mastering the art is a different cattle of fish. Course Gold, you'll have a hard time trying to get it out of the pan, different shapes of the same size will have no problem wanting to exit your pan, go figure? I've just gone down a new avenue due to the old eye sight failing, so confusing.
Black sand's are our worst nightmare, yet are our best friend, easily spotted! As soon as you see black sands showing it's face , "Slow Down", Stop infact! and re concentrate the heavy's . This is the part that you need to master??? Slish sloshing with no meaning will have your gold already exposed, You don't want that. Good luck!

Hi Travellergold,
There are many and varied ways to pan, but I've found that by vigourously trying to get the heavy materials to the bottom of the pan and once there try not to disturb what i call the tail where the gold will be, as for the black sands try wrapping a fairly strong magnet in glad wrap and drag it through the black material, this I find thins out the rubbish in the pan and helps to recover the gold better, The biggest thing with panning is practice and patience.
I consider myself to be a competent panner but learnt new skills over xmas in Hillend, they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks,I'll contest that.
Good rule of thumb, take it steady and be patient. happy hunting, maybe we'll meet up one day if you ever get to the Palmer River,
Cheers

G'day
Make sure the bottom of your pan has texture or "teeth", a fine to medium sandpaper will do it, I use a sort of cross-hatch pattern. This will reduce the movement of gold.
Everybody develops their own technique and mine is the backwash method. With the cons away from you tilt the pan forward gently so the water rolls around the edges and start to tilt back as the water meets over the cons. The water should fall back towards you while taking a fine layer of sands to the other side of the pan then repeat. You will get a feel for the right amount of water and tilt through practice. I can seperate the gold in about 30 secs but have had much practice. There are a couple of youtube vids that demonstrate it better than my description. This method may not suit everybody. Horses for courses

Cheers

Chimpy