|
|
Gold Panning Competitions.
To compete in the noble art of gold panning, well that is certainly something that goldpanners has dealt with in all times. In order to measure their own ability and skill to pan, they challanged other panners to various competitions, and betting was common.
The shape of the goldpanning competitions currently held by the World Goldpanning Association, originating from the gold fields of Finnish Lapland.
At the goldclaim Tankavaara it all started in 1974, and already in 1977 they held the first World Goldpanning Championships there. Today, the World Goldpanning Association has some 20 member countries, and annually held the World Goldpanning Championships in any of them.
In 1984 we started a competition in Kopparberg, the Kopparberg Open Goldpanning Championship, and it´s still an annual contest that strongly contributed to making Kopparberg the "Swedish Klondyke"
How to compete?
Am I able to compete, although I have never pan before?
Is the winner, the one founding most kilos of gold?
Yes, the questions are many, and it must be said, the rules for the competitions grows constantly, and they would take too much space here.
Simply stated, it ts in the following way. To begin with, there are different categories: Men, women, veterans, youth, beginners, teams, to mention a few. This means that there is a category for everyone, including those who never have panned before, they set up in the beginners category.
One´s put in a heat, you have to choose a bucket containing 4-10 liters of sand and gravel. In that bucket has also been seeded 5-12 small pieces of gold, size 1,0-1,5 mm. In all buckets in the same heat, the same number of gold pieces has been seeded, however the numbers of gold pieces is confidential until all competitors have finished their panning.
When too start the heat, all competitors are inside a panningpool, filled with water. Then when the start is given, they all start to pan, as fast as they dare. Because remember, every little piece of gold that are lost, costs the competitor 3 minutes penalty, added to their panningtime.
The best panners in the world today, often pan out all material, approx 10 liters in about 1-1,5 minutes, without loosing any gold. So the winner is the fastest panner, without any lost gold.
|
Goldpanning Competitions