How to Pan for Gold in North Georgia

Shaking and Swirling

• 1

  Fill pan almost full of gravel. Lower your pan slightly into the flowing water. Shake your pan both back and forth and side to side, keeping the gravel in your pan.

• 2

  Use a circular motion to gently revolve the material, causing most of the clay and dirt to wash out of the pan and to remove larger rocks. If needed, repeat this process to remove smaller rocks.

• 3

  Slightly tilt the pan away from you as you hold it just under the water. With a slight, forward tossing motion, swirl the water from side to side to move out the surface gravel. Occasionally, level the pan and shake it back and forth, causing the light gravel to come to the surface. Continue this process until around 2 cups of black sand remains in your pan.

• 4

  Lift the pan out of the water, leaving about an inch of water in the pan. Slightly tilt the pan toward you, swirling the water slowly to check for gold pieces that can be picked by hand.

• 5

  Submerge the pan slightly in the flowing water again. Be very careful not to wash out the remaining concentrate. Again, slightly tilt the pan away from you. Swirl the water from side to side with a slight, forward tossing motion. Keep leveling the pan and shaking it back and forth to remove lighter material and end up with your final concentration.

• 6

  Apply a magnet to the bottom side of your plastic pan. Move the magnet in a small circular motion while slightly tilting the pan to separate the gold from the black sand.

• 7

  Use a couple of drops of detergent from a small squeeze bottle in your pan. This process also speeds up gold collection by breaking up the water's surface tension.