HOW IT WORKS

Quick instructions:

1. Make sure the clean up riffles are on the side away from you, then put the pan underwater and spin it anticlockwise and clockwise through 180 degrees to get the load saturated.

2. Check the central trap for compaction and water saturation with your finger.

3. Use an anti-clockwise circular motion to get the dirt-load into motion over the circular riffle bed. This breaks up the dirt and prevents compaction.

4. The gold and heavy minerals quickly get into the riffle grooves, which gravity then feeds into the central trap. The light sands and clays fly outwards due to centrifugal force. Alternate between a cantering swirl to get the "heavies" into the middle and the "lights" to the surface and outside, then an ejection swirl.

5. The shallowness of the pan allows the large pebbles to be easily scrapped off and discarded.

6. Once the amount of material left just covers the central trap, do a couple of clockwise swirls, then 5 seconds of vigorous backwards/forwards and sideways shakes.

7. Then tilt the pan away from you gently, and shake the pan side to side while tilting up to about 30 degrees.

8. Pan off the waste until the concentrate in the central trap covers about a 50 cent piece.

9. Tilt the pan back towards you and the gold will be there.

10. Don't worry if you still see some gold on the clean up riffles. With practice you will work out your own technique.

Detailed instructions:

1. Place dirt into pan. It is best to only ¾ fill it, which is about 6kg. Ensure the concentric riffles are on the side away from you. These are the clean up riffles.

2. Submerge pan underwater completely, holding the pan on each side. Rotate pan clockwise and anti-clockwise very quickly for about 5 seconds. This is to get the water to go right through the dirt and start the saturation process.

3. Hold the pan with one hand. With your other hand, stir the dirt in the central collection trap, checking for compaction and clay where the water has not fully penetrated. Stir the dirt by hand until you're satisfied complete saturation has occurred.

4. Move the pan in an anti-clockwise motion so that the load moves inside the pan anti-clockwise. The purpose of this is to get the dirt moving over the spiral riffles so that the gold will work its way into the grooves.

It is important to go anti-clockwise so that the clays in suspension will not compact against the steep sides of the spiral riffles. An initial sharp movement helps to get the dirt moving. Swirl in an anti-clockwise direction for 25-30 seconds.

5. Alternate between a centring swirl to get the "heavies" into the middle and the "lights" to the surface and outside, then an ejection swirl. It is normal for a little dirt to fl y out of the pan at the edge. If a lot is going out, slow down your swirling rhythm so that only a small amount flies out with each swirl.

Keep swirling until the amount of material left just covers the central trap. There are several techniques for using this pan – and scraping out the waste by hand is one of them – but this is not recommended for beginners.

6. Shake the pan vigorously forwards and backwards and from side to side for 10 seconds, to get the gold down off the clean-up riffles, so all the gold is in the central trap.

7. While shaking the pan from side to side, tilt the pan forward and allow dirt to run out of the front of the pan. Ensure clean-up riffles are at the front of the pan – away from you.

8. After half the dirt has been ejected, centre the pan again, do a few more clockwise swirls and repeat steps 6 & 7.

9. Work out your own careful clean up technique for reducing concentrate to gold only or mostly gold only.

10. Pick out nuggets. Pick up large flecks of gold by firstly drying your hand, wetting the end of your finger with saliva, and picking them up with the end of your finger. Place them into a jar, vial, etc.

11. It's best to suck up gold fines and dust with a plastic squirter bottle that has a tube from the mouth of the bottle to the bottom of the bottle.