This will be just a quick reference to the properties of gold as it would be impossible to add anything that isn't in Ken Lane's Gold Prospecting page.

• Gold is a very heavy yellow metal. It has a specific gravity of 19.3 which means a quart of gold would weigh 19.3 times as much as a quart of water. As a comparison, lead has a specific gravity of about 11 so gold is almost twice as heavy as lead.
• Gold is resistant to most naturally occurring chemicals so it doesn't tarnish and it is never destroyed.
• Gold is very malleable and ductile. It can be hammered so thin that 250,000 sheets would make a stack one inch high. One ounce can be drawn into a wire thirty five miles long.
• Gold is never found pure in nature. It is usually alloyed with copper, silver and/or platinum.

• By its weight - If your panning technique is correct, the gold will be found at the bottom of the pan. When you gently swirl water around in your pan, gold acts differently than the other material. It won't move as easily as the other stuff.
• By its appearance - Because gold doesn't have much of a crystalline structure, it doesn't really sparkle or glitter - it shines. It looks the same in the sunlight or in the shade.
• If in doubt, whack it with a hammer. If it flattens, it is probably gold. If it shatters, it isn't.
• This is not recommended. You can drop a specimen into some nitric acid. If it doesn't react, it is probably gold. If it does, it isn't. Nitric acid is dangerous if it gets on you or you breath the fumes. Be sure you know proper handling procedures.

One other thing to keep in mind. Due to past mining operations, some or all of the gold in certain streams may be coated with mercury. If you see some material in your pan that "acts" like gold but is a bright silver color, it is probably mercury coated gold.
Do not mix mercury coated gold with your other gold because the mercury will rub off and contaminate your clean gold. The easiest way to get rid of the mercury is to heat it on a camp stove outside and downwind from any humans, animals or structures. Heat in a metal cup that you will never, ever use for any thing else. Mercury is dangerous if it gets in you, on you or you breath the fumes.

• 24 grains = 1 pennyweight (abbreviated dwt - don't ask, I don't know why)
• 20 pennyweights = 1 troy ounce
• 480 grains = 1 troy ounce
• 12 troy ounces = 1 troy pound (if you need to know this, I need to know where you are digging)

• 1 troy ounce = 31.104 grams
• 1 pennyweight = 1.552 grams
• 1 grain = 64.8 milligrams
• 1 gram = .543 pennyweights

A regular (avoirdupois) ounce = 437.5 grains so a troy ounce is about ten percent heavier.

If you don't want to invest in a scale, you can get standard bottles in 2 dwt, 1/2 ounce, one ounce etc. at prospecting shops. You can use these bottles to fairly accurately estimate how much gold you have.

There will be a Glossary here eventually.

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