over sifting material when panning explaned

[mudgee hunter]

I admit that after panning a bit more than usual lately, and using a 6mm sieve, that I found the material In the pan tended to cake up and good turbulance in the pan was missing. So I put a good hand full of small rocks back in in. And presto the material in the pan behaved heaps better and helped bring the sand to the top a lot quicker. Seems having some rocks in the pan help make the agitation work better. They where simple to remove towards the end.
Next time you out panning, try it, by all means sift it to your desired size, but throw in a hand full of 20mm pebbles and see for yourself!
It cut down on time as well!

 

[aussiefarmer]

If your panning with any traces of clay a bit of coarse material is essential to puddle it as you pan.
A 1/2 inch seive will cut the number of pans by at least 1/3rd or more :Y: and your wasting daylight and effort without one , it all depends on the type of material being panned to how fine i will classify as you said it can clag up which stops the heavies settling i also use different swirls, shakes , taps , jiggles and wash patterns for every type its just pratice, then your brain programs your hand to suit it auto matically.

 

[mudgee hunter]

So very true, fine clean river sand works a treat on mashing up the clay and keep plenty of new water up to it.
Once when I was camped out I had a bucket of clay that just didn't want to break down. But I always take my tub bucket, thats an old large light aluminum comercial rice pot I scored. I keep it by the fire hot to do first rinsing of mugs and plates etc, saves on water. Soooo any way, I boiled the clay with a bit detergent. Presto... the clay broke down to silt and I got my gold out of what would of been totaly time consuming.

 

[aussiefarmer]

Yep a little known tip is hot water especially on those slimy clays , stumbled onto that panning in the winter :lol:

 

[Occasional_panner]

Oh well that's just marvelous! So now we have to give the clay a nice warm bath?
I hope we don't need to light candles and serenade it as well.

 

[mudgee hunter]

WHAT! ARNT YA DOING THAT ALREADY! gee, I always do that like a ritual every nite camped out, Catch up with the times OP :lol:
Oh, thats right, you haven't road the goat backwards naked down the main street yet have you?
Maybe will let you in, after you posted it on youtube for us to see.

 

[Occasional_panner]

Jeeeeez what do you new south welshmen get up to :|

 

[mudgee hunter]

Can't tell you anything till after you post it m8. Cult thing...... soz.....

 

[NUGS MONEY]

Great info up there guys!
Is there any fail safe way to identify gold bearing clay?
Where I'm at I'm dealing with everything from grey to red and feel like my best results dont actually come from the clay itself, although this could be because the material is harder to pan, i guess its something that is also area specific.

 

[mudgee hunter]

Me, personaly... if it doesn't show color stripping off in my hopper, I chuck it out straight away. But if I see it breaking down.. I let it strip. If it feels gritty between your fingers, it mey well contain gold. If its silky smooth... make a pot out of it. Ha. Sum clay disolves easy under the spray bars, color off the over spray shows up obvious. But if I let it strip down, I let it strip at its own pace, rather than force unbroken lumps down through the classifiers. Letting the water disolve it into small particles. I have tried rushing it through and ended up with nothing but a heap off clay balls in my traps, that probably stole separated gold with its stickiness.

 

[NUGS MONEY]

:Y: Golden!
Thanks for that mudgee hunter! :Y:

 

[Outback]

Some good advice here ~~ the increase of viscosity will Bugger Up panning !

jack

 

[Jum]

Only six months panning experience I have. And found depending where I'm at determines how much clay I work n how fine I classify down to. For example at Abercrombie I'll go 150 mm into whitish rock filled clay n classify down to half inch n vigorously chuck the pan around without care. So good to read the above as it's very reaffirming for me as I'm learning as I go. With tuena I'll only take as little clay as possible. After a few tests of saving a days worth of clay balls I found little next to no gold in comparison when working in the live stream. After I got my Gs21 sluice the older blokes say mate your not throwing enough clay in from your hole as they'd see me tossing chunks off my shovel.as it has the turbulating hopper. so I tested again saved 15L bucket worth of clay balls for any hour or so of massaging my clay bac home for a great exfoliating experience n 1 flake.....ie. u do the test for where u at. Wished I had of known about the boiler idea before. Loving it either way. Still love pannin better then sluicing n will often leave sluice at home. I recently was recently worked a hole about 1.5 round n down 800 after 2-3 hours 15 pans lots of large rocks removed I showed my haul to 2 blokes sluicing with Wal banker who worked like man possessed for the same time n processed 10 times the area then me.they were cleaning up as I walked past on my way out they showed me n had a fraction bit less in my sniffer then them n felt great. It is possible to better get better gold with a pan but It involves having young legs to get u there.

 

[Lesgold]

Went to Tuena for the first time last weekend. Wasn't there to play in the water but to have a look at the place as a possible future playground. I did however, throw in a pan, a sniffer and a pick (just in case I was given a leave pass for an hour or so) I was told that an old timer had worked a spot next to the crossing for a month with a high banker. He dug a hole the size of a swimming pool and left with quite a lot of gold. He had worked his spot down to the clay level and took very little of the sticky stuff. I panned there for a few hours and skimmed the gravel that he left and only took only a small amount of the clay. With no classifier, all pebbles and rocks stayed in the pan. As was said earlier, the rocks and pebbles helped to break down the clay. Rocks were removed after the pan material was stratified and clay dissolved. The issue for me after spending some time panning this way is that I now can't access my IPad by using my thumb print. There isn't one........

 

[mudgee hunter]

Thats kind of handy if did any crimes after it, no prints.haha