Reference

Gold Panning - How to Pan for Gold We carry a number of prospecting books that cover this subject in greater detail, but here are the basics of how to use a gold pan. 1. Fill your gold pan 1/2 to 2/3 full of gold bearing material (if it's not in there to begin with, it won't magically appear through panning). If you have a classifier, use it to screen off the larger gravel. It will greatly improve your efficiency and gold recovery. 2. Completely submerge pan (and classifier) of material and work it with your hands. Break up any clay...

The world's largest gold nugget and the largest gold nugget ever found are two different animals...err...nuggets, and they're also different than the worlds largest single mass of gold ever found. The Holtermann Nugget found at Hill End, New South Wales, Australia in 1872, at 290 kg. was huge, and indeed remains the largest single mass of gold ever discovered, but it can't really be called a "nugget" in my book. We could go into hard rock vs placer, but the essence is that a gold nugget has left the lode at some point and is no longer in the host...