hey guys ,first post,first question re panning

Hey guys
just a quick question, when panning out fine material i have read that some people put washing up detergent in ...or some sort of additive..what does this do???

Cheers Piko

piko221 wrote:Hey guys
just a quick question, when panning out fine material i have read that some people put washing up detergent in ...or some sort of additive..what does this do???

Cheers Piko

Gday Piko

What happens is the really fine stuff can float on the surface tension of the water in the pan and when you are tipping the pan to get the fine grit and that out the fine gold will also wash out of the pan, a couple of drops of washing detergent in your wash bucket or pan will help break the surface tension of the water and allow the fine stuff to sink to the bottom of the pan with the rest of the gold.

Usually I do this when panning off crushed specimens as the really fine stuff that is mustardy in appearance and will very easily wash out with the pan water if you are not careful, if you are having this problem then always pan off into a container that will allow you to retrieve the outcast from the pan so that after you have allowed it to completely dry out you can re process it and then pan it off again when you have more time.

There are other things you can use, like rinse aid, but dish wash is always readily available to swipe from the kitchen.

cheers

stayyerAU

There are other things you can use, like rinse aid, but dish wash is always readily available to swipe from the kitchen

Iam lucky enough to have rinse aid in the kitchen for my dishwasher
I prefere rinseaid just because it does the same job as detergant with less to allmost no bubbles. For me the bubbles are just as bad as that floating gold

Thanks guys will give detergent a go ....