In recent years, the price of gold has been increasing steadily. While large corporations can see great incomes from gold mining, the situation is different for prospectors who prefer gold panning. However, it is possible to see a profit from your hobby.
So, is gold panning profitable?
The average gold panner isn’t going to make a lot of money, since gold is hard to come by in large enough quantities. However, finding the right spot and making use of sluices and other larger pieces of equipment can significantly increase your chances of making a significant profit.
If you’re thinking about leveling up your hobby and turning it into a profitable side hustle, then read on to discover if gold panning is worth your time or not!
Table of Contents
What Is Gold Panning?
Gold panning is the practice of prospecting for gold using a gold pan.
Gold panning is one of the oldest recovery methods, as well as one of the simplest. Indeed, once you know where to find gold, all you’ll need to recover it is a pan. Amateurs, experts and novice gold prospectors alike use this strategy because of the low initial investment it requires, both with regards to time and money.
In the right location, prospectors will pour the collected streambed material in the pan and keep washing it with stream water. This method is ideal when processing small quantities of streambed material, and with enough persistence, it can lead to finding gold placer.
It’s important to note that gold panning mostly is used as a means of prospecting. In short, gold prospecting is the activity of going out and sampling material in different locations, in order to find gold-bearing ground that can be processed with heavier equipment, such as sluice boxes or high bankers.
Gold placer usually won’t only contain only gold, but will also have other materials and minerals, such as copper, platinum, and silver. Because of this mixture of minerals, a prospector won’t get as much money when selling the placer because it isn’t entirely composed of gold. Typically, you can expect to get 70-85% of the gold spot price, when selling placer gold to a dealer.
Can You Make a Living Out of Gold Panning?
Although there are other materials in the placer gold, prospectors can sell it to a qualified buyer for a profit. However, making a living out of gold panning without investing in more efficient equipment and machinery is very challenging, and it’s very unlikely that you will find rich gold deposits in enough quantity to support yourself financially.
The main issue is that the quantity of gold retrieved when panning is often extremely limited and in the form of sand-like particles. Therefore, while panning can be profitable to an extent, you will need to process large quantities of placer to find enough gold to see substantial profits.
Another issue is that the most easily accessible gold in most areas has already been dug up, which means that you generally need to venture into more remote places, or recover smaller amounts of gold using more efficient equipment.
However, it’s still important to remember that places that have already been mined many years ago still can hold gold. A river that has been a solid gold producer in the past is quite likely to continue to be so in the future as well. And if you just leave it for long enough, newly eroded material is likely to once again get trapped in those same parts of the river.
Still, even then it’s hard to find enough gold to make a decent living, and most people simply won’t succeed. As with most profitable ventures, a lot of hard work, dedication, and perseverance is needed in order to stand a chance of turning it all into a thriving business.
How Much Gold Can You Pan in a day?
Most rivers contain gold in some quantities, be it microscopic pecks or larger gold nuggets. This means that you, in theory, should be able to find gold in every river.
Now, nobody will be using a gold pan as a production tool. It’s simply too slow to be able to process the amount of material that is needed in order to find reasonable amounts of gold in most places.
But of course, no rule comes without exceptions. In some cases, like when you are sniping (cleaning out crevices where gold might have been trapped) you CAN make a quite good amount of gold quite quickly using just a pan.
But what if you were using a more efficient piece of equipment, like a sluice or a high banker?
Well, then you would be able to process literally hundreds of times more material than if you were panning, which surely would increase the amount of gold you can find. It’s not uncommon to hear that some really rich grounds can pay up to 1 to 2 ounces of gold per day using only a medium-sized dredge, operated by one person.
Even though we would like to give a definitive answer here, it simply isn’t possible. There are too many unknown variables, both regarding the richness of the land you are processing, and your own ability to read the landscape to extract the gold as efficiently and effectively as possible.
Factors Affecting the Profitability of Gold Panning
The market value of gold has been increasing steadily, making it even more profitable for large mining corporations to see profits. However, if your business is limited to panning, you should take into consideration the factors below, as these can make a difference in the profits you can perceive.
Limited Quantities
The increased price of gold is directly related to the limited amount of this metal to be found in sites. Indeed, in 2019, the estimated total amount of gold extracted was around 190,040 metric tons. Moreover, it is believed that gold composes only 0.005 parts per million on the Earth’s surface, placing it among the rarest and most difficult to find materials on the planet.
These estimations and the speed at which corporations are extracting the metal offer you an indication of how little gold you can find with just a pan, if you don’t find some really good pay streaks!
Large Mining Sites Are Claimed
Another factor that can limit the profits you can see from your hobby is the fact that many good territories are already claimed by large corporations. Indeed, the gold found in these locations is usually enough to cover the initial investment required to acquire the land and start the recovery operations.
The placer gold eroded from the lode and transported by a river bed allows prospectors to find residual pieces of this metal in the surrounding locations or along rivers.
Ultimately, in this case, having an understanding of the location’s geology and history is essential. You don’t need to be a geologist or an expert, but if you just pan around without a plan, your efforts will probably prove fruitless.
Investment and Equipment
Panning is often the preferred method for recovering gold used by many beginners. A simple upgrade to this technique is using a sluice box that allows you to process higher quantities of material within shorter timeframes. However, even in this case, the amount of gold found is subject to the factors mentioned above.
Moreover, it is crucial to understand that the prospecting process can be very different from the gold mining process. Indeed, for major corporations, it has never been more profitable than now to recover gold with technology making it quicker and cheaper to prospect new grounds. For small-scale prospectors, however, the competition has become much fiercer, especially if you are competing against state-of-the-art equipment and recovery techniques.
Knowledge
The knowledge you have regarding the area, prospecting methods, and geology can be a determining factor in how much gold you can reasonably expect. Indeed, larger-scale operations have the chance to process and search large quantities of materials, increasing their chances of finding gold.
Time
Lastly, the time you are willing to spend prospecting can make a significant difference in your income. As we have seen above, it is extremely challenging for a gold prospector to make a living out of this hobby. In turn, this means that such a prospector will probably have a full-time job to attend.
The more time you spend panning, the more likely it is that you will stumble upon some really rich grounds, that could make it all worth it. Remember, persistence and perseverance are key factors for success when it comes to gold prospecting!
How to Make Gold Panning More Profitable
Prospectors might struggle to see steady results from this hobby, yet this factor has not put off aficionados from trying again. Indeed, while incomes might be meager at times, finding placer gold means that you can sell that gold and see a profit and experience hours of recreational enjoyment.
Below you can find tricks to increase your chances of finding gold:
Learn More
As we have seen above, your knowledge of the area’s geology and history is a determining factor in finding gold. However, this is even more essential for prospectors using only a pan to recover gold. Having an understanding of the land characteristics and where it is more likely for you to find gold can increase your chances.
Practice
Especially in the case of gold panning, you might be losing some gold particles during the procedure of processing streambed material. For how small, such losses can represent a significant decrease in the profits you can expect from your time spent prospecting.
While you might not start seeing profits – or gold – on the first day you search for it, practicing can help you increase your chances in many ways. Some tips include:
- Avoid losing precious particles and sediments while panning the streambed material: That is, when finishing the pan having only the black sand and gold in the bottom, be careful and take your time using gentle moves. You may also consider saving the black sand and pan it one more time at home, to recover all the fine gold you might have missed.
- Speed up the process of panning and be able to process increased quantities of materials: You can shake the pan quite aggressively before you have come down to the heavier materials. Ultimately, this will save you some time which can be used to process more material.
- Understand the right locations to pan for gold.
Invest Time and Equipment
Even with practice and expertise, panning for gold is a time-consuming process. Therefore, to recover gold for a specific location, you might need to invest time and effort to examine the area. Investing in a sluice box might seem unnecessary at first, but it can speed up the process and allow you to see more profits!
Conclusion
Large mining corporations and extensive gold prospecting operations can extract profits from this practice due to the high demand and increasing the price of the metal.
However, if you are planning to search for gold with just a pan, you should understand that you will be able to process only a limited amount of placer or streambed material at a time. This characteristic makes the process time-consuming and laborious, making it difficult for gold prospectors to make a living out of this hobby.
Nonetheless, gold is present in placer gold and can be sold for a profit.