Gold pans & classifiers: where to buy
The gold pan is where everyone starts, and it stays in every prospector's kit. It works because gold is far heavier than sand and gravel: you fill the pan with gravel and water, shake it so the gold sinks to the bottom, then tilt and swirl until the light material washes over the edge and only the heavy stuff is left. Most modern plastic pans have riffles molded along one side to hold the gold while you work.
A classifier is a round screen that sits on top of your pan or a bucket. Shovel gravel into it, shake, and only the smaller material falls through; check the big rocks for nuggets before you throw them away. Common sizes run from 1/2 inch down to 1/8 inch and finer, and screening everything to an even size is one of the easiest ways to lose less gold, in the pan or in a sluice.
Pans and classifiers are cheap, light and allowed wherever hand prospecting is allowed, which makes them the natural first purchase: learn to pan well and every other machine makes more sense.
5 shops across the US that sell gold pans & classifiers. Each one links to its own website, so you can compare them one by one.
A & B Prospecting Supplies (Mesa)
Dealer · Storefront · Mesa, Arizona · Ships nationwide
Prospecting store since 1979: Minelab, Garrett, Fisher, Keene, Falcon
Prospecting supply store in Mesa and one of the best known in Arizona, listed by ICMJ as a trusted vendor. It sells Minelab, Garrett, Fisher and Falcon metal detectors; drywashers, sluices, highbankers and recirculating units; dredges, pumps and parts; pans, classifiers and fine-gold concentrators; hand tools, rock crushers, books and beginner kits; and assay and refining supplies such as furnaces, chemicals and labware. A second store is in Prescott Valley.
Also sells: Metal detectors · Sluice boxes · Highbankers & power sluices · Dredges & parts · Drywashers · Picks, shovels & hand tools · Fine gold recovery · Assay & refining supplies
A & B Prospecting Supplies (Prescott Valley)
Dealer · Storefront · Prescott Valley, Arizona · Ships nationwide
A&B's second store, a short drive from Lynx Creek
Second store of A & B Prospecting Supplies, in Prescott Valley in the gold country of central Arizona, with the same range as the Mesa store: metal detectors, drywashers, sluices, highbankers, dredge parts, pans and classifiers, fine-gold concentrators, hand tools and assay supplies.
Also sells: Metal detectors · Sluice boxes · Highbankers & power sluices · Dredges & parts · Drywashers · Picks, shovels & hand tools · Fine gold recovery · Assay & refining supplies
Rob's Detector Sales
Dealer · Online or by order · Surprise, Arizona · Ships nationwide
Minelab certified gold trainer; Coiltek, Nugget Finder, Detech coils
Online metal detector dealer in Surprise, northwest of Phoenix, run by Rob Allison, a nugget hunter who posts on YouTube as Nuggethunting. It sells detectors from Minelab, Nokta, XP, Garrett, Fisher and other brands, gold coils from Coiltek, Detech and Nugget Finder, headphones, pinpointers, picks and scoops, panning kits, smelting and refining supplies, books and used equipment.
Also sells: Metal detectors · Picks, shovels & hand tools · Assay & refining supplies
Other gear
Metal detectors · Sluice boxes · Highbankers & power sluices · Dredges & parts · Drywashers · Sniping & crevice tools · Rocker boxes · Trommels · Picks, shovels & hand tools · Fine gold recovery · Assay & refining supplies · Paydirt · Mineral specimens · Rough & slabs · Lapidary equipment · Fossils · Meteorites · Petrified wood · Classes & training
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