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Message:: [QUOTE="acanthite, post: 380203, member: 6647"]I assume you will be panning/prospecting.  Gold mining is another thing altogether. Actually finding something in a stream is all about location, unless you are in areas where people have found something in the past it seems unlikely you will get gold.  Anywhere downstream from a known gold-producing area is a potential candidate, if it is legal to pan there.  But if you have already done that research and have some streams in mind, then I suggest the following: 1) Get a fairly big pan.  Is heavier, but you can pan greater quantities of material, thus better probability of getting a flake. 2) Make sure the pan has a conical shape, or has ridges, anything that will tend to capture heavies in a relatively small surface area.  Make sure it is smooth, as any little knick or gouge will trap flakes where you don't want them to be. 3)  Dark colored pans better, contrast greater with the flakes. 4) Pan below areas of high energy, example in a bowl below a small cascade where water energy levels drop dramatically. 5) Don't bother panning mud or fines.  Dig down and get the sand and gravels 6) Pyrite, muscovite, and some other minerals look like gold to the untrained eye.  Muscovite (a mica) is flat and light, easier to distinguish, but pyrite is heavy and gold-colored.  But put a piece of gold next to pyrite and you see right away how pale it is in comparison.[/QUOTE]