I do not get the Dicovery Channel, but if you do, there is a Friday night series you might have caught or are following called GOLD RUSH. Discovery Communications and Pay Dirt Gold Company have introduced a way to bring the panning for gold experience right into your own hands with the GOLD RUSH Panning Kit.
The GOLD Rush Panning Kit includes:
– 12″ green plastic pan
– Genuine gold—most kits contain small amounts, while others have up
to $500 worth of gold hidden inside
– Snuffer bottle for extracting gold from the dirt
– Vintage vile to store their treasures
– Certificate of authenticity
You will need to supply your own large bucket and a pair of tweezers.
Inside the burlap bag is a sealed bag of pay dirt. On the other side is a unique bar code for each bag.
After rinsing the pan and your bucket, open the bag of pay dirt and then pour into the center of the pan. It says to then remove all large stones and any other unwanted material. 
The image is a bit blurry, but we found a gold fleck before adding the water.
My daughter and I were able to remove a fair amount of large stones before adding water from the bucket to the pan.
The water will be dirty. You have to tilt the pan and jiggle it from side to side. The gold is heavier than most of the other particles and will eventually sink to the bottom. You want to remove the lighter material into the bucket and keep shaking and dumping the water carefully until it looks clean.
I didn’t see much black sand, which should be at the bottom with the gold, but we found a few more flecks in the bottom. The snuffer bottle took some skill to use, but you can also use the tweezers to pick up the gold. It is possible to also re-pan the pay dirt left in your bucket and check for any pieces you might have missed.
My youngest two children didn’t have the patience to participate, but my oldest daughter (7) helped search for gold in the kit. I think it is almost like re-living a bit of history with the “forty-niners”. Thankfully this experience is free of all the hardships they experienced during the Gold Rush.
The GOLD RUSH Panning Kit retails for $39.99, which includes what I have described above and the pay dirt is a 1 lb. bag. After you have the initial kit, you can purchase 2 lb. bags of pay dirt for $29.95.
Here is a video with Parker Schnabel to give you the best chance of finding gold with the GOLD RUSH Panning Kit. The gold in the kits is from working mining sites throughout North America.
GOLD RUSH Pay Dirt on Facebook
GOLD RUSH on Twitter
GOLD RUSH on YouTube
Disclosure: I received a GOLD RUSH Panning Kit in exchange of an honest review. No other compensation was received. The thoughts and feelings expressed are my own.
