Gold Panning and Prospecting Equipment

Gold Pans

A lot of the larger metal detector dealers in the UK stock the Garrett gold pans and panning kits which are excellent value for money (the kit in particular, as it includes a book, a suction bottle and several pans etc. and should be available for a little less than £30) most of the larger dealers also sell via mail order, so you can buy over the phone, or in some cases, via the net.

Dredges and Sluices

Dredges and Sluices are a necessity if you want to maximise your gold finds, you will be able to process so much more material that you will find a lot more gold. Sadly, in most places in the UK their use is prohibited due to the potential environmental impact washing large amounts of dirt and material into a stream or river system can have.

Gold Prospecting Abroad

In other countries, where there is a greater potential for running a small mining operation profitably, the attitudes toward using heavier duty prospecting equipment will be very different.

Serious prospectors tend to only use gold pans to find locations worthy of bringing in the heavier equipment, panning is a method of sampling rather than a commercially viable means of gold recovery. That is not to say that you can't find significant amounts of gold through panning alone, prospectors in America and Canada certainly do, but to increase the amount of gold you can recover you need to increase the amount of material, 'Pay Dirt,'  you can process, and that is where dredges, sluices and even rock crushers come into play.

If you are new to gold prospecting and perhaps aren't very familiar with dredges and sluices, pay a visit to the Keene Engineering web site[1]. Keene (based in California, USA) have been producing gold prospecting equipment for 50 years or more and on their web site you will be able to view images of a wide variety of prospecting equipment, ranging from gold pans costing less than $10 to dredge systems costing more than $10,000.

[1] N.B. Sadly, I don't receive kick backs or bribes from Keene Engineering for recommending their web site, but it is probably the best place on the web for viewing a complete range of prospecting equipment.