The beginners' display at most gold and gem shows is a beautiful lesson in spending money you don't need to spend. Here's the actual short list for starting out: a solid 10-inch gold pan (green or black to see color easily), a classifier to size your material, a decent hand lens (10x), and a set of vials for samples. And that's it to start.
The sluice can come after you've found spots worth running material through and the metal detector is a later conversation depending on what you're hunting. The gear that makes the biggest difference early on isn't the equipment,it's time spent learning how gold and minerals actually deposit, which is creek geology and reading the ground.
The sluice can come after you've found spots worth running material through and the metal detector is a later conversation depending on what you're hunting. The gear that makes the biggest difference early on isn't the equipment,it's time spent learning how gold and minerals actually deposit, which is creek geology and reading the ground.
