1. A gold pan – There is a wide variety of pan types.
   
2. Five gallon buckets.
3. A shovel.
4. Classifier. Available from most places where you will buy pans. Here are
   
   two types of classifiers. One fits into the bucket, one sits on the lip of the bucket.
5. Gloves. Work gloves will save your hands from blisters. Rubber gloves will save your hands from freezing in icy cold streams.
6. Muck Boots. These knee high rubber boots are available at most department stores of the "mart" variety for about $15.00. They will keep your feet warm and dry.
7. Something to sit on while panning. Some people sit on one of their empty 5 gallon buckets or buy a small campstool. If you don't get something to sit on, panning gets real hard on the knees.
8. A snuffer or sniffer bottle. This is to suck up the gold from your pan. You can then separate the gold completely from the little bit of black sand you might suck up with it later.

  That's about all you need for the basics of panning. You will probably see all kinds of equipment being used by panners, but for starters, the above equipment will be all you need. Depending upon where you are going to prospect, you will need to be prepared for weather and altitude. Be prepared for any changes in weather. Keep your body hydrated. Bring some water or one of the sport's drinks with you. Even if the water in the stream looks crystal clear, don't drink it, it may have some bacteria in it, and you'll get sick.

  Now let’s talk about the actual panning. Place some of that dirt into the pan. You should probably start out with just a ¼ pan of dirt at first until you get the hang of it, and then you can add more dirt. Place the whole pan under water, and mix the dirt and water with your hand so the dirt gets totally wet. Shake the pan while it is still under water so the heaviest contents will settle to the bottom (remember gold will settle to the bottom with the black sand). Now twirl the pan in a circular motion (be sure to keep it under water) and notice that the light material will travel out of the pan with the flow of the water. If you lift the pan out of the water, heavier material will follow the water out of the pan, so keep it under water. As you continue to twirl the pan, the lighter material will continue to flow out of the pan. Stop twirling every once in a while and shake the pan again to get the heavies to go to the bottom of the pan. Pick out any rocks, and after you are sure they aren't nuggets, throw them away. After the light material has pretty much been panned out, you will begin to notice the darker sand showing up. Keep panning, there will be less and less of the lighter dirt and sand, and eventually there will just be black sand and some small pebbles left in the pan.

  When you get down to this point, you will want to slow down and be more deliberate in your panning. With the pan out of the water, but with still enough water in it to cover all of the black sand, tap the side of the pan with your hand to sink the gold into the edge of the bottom of the pan. At this point, if you twirl the water in the pan, the black sand will travel with the water, but any gold should sit right where it was tapped to in the bottom edge of the pan. Don't worry too much about completely separating the gold from the black sand at this time, but suck up any gold into a "snuffer bottle". If black sand sucks up into the bottle with the gold, don't worry about it, you can do your finishing later where you will completely separate the gold from the black sand. (Most prospectors keep the black sand in a separate container for later when they will finish the separation process.)