Rotating gold pan assembly

A separator for separating gold particles from gold ore, comprising:

• a bucket having a bottom and a sidewall extending upwardly from the bottom to form a bucket interior, said sidewall having an upper edge;
• a frame having an upper end, a lower end, a front side and a rear side;
• at least one hook on the rear side of the frame adapted to hook onto the upper edge of the bucket while the lower end of the frame is in the bucket interior;
• a rotatable separator pan mounted on the front side of the frame, said pan including a bottom wall with front and rear sides and a perimeter, a gold particle collecting hub region, a sidewall projecting forwardly from the perimeter of the bottom wall, and a spiral rib on the front side of the bottom wall, spiraling inwardly from the sidewall to the gold particle collecting hub region;
• a motor on the frame connected to the pan for rotating the pan relative to the frame and bucket;
• and
• a brace on the frame below the hook, extending rearwardly from said frame into contact with the sidewall of the bucket, said brace holding the frame and the pan in rearwardly leaning positions,
• wherein in preparation for use, lower portions of the frame and the pan are placed in the bucket interior, the hook is hooked onto the upper edge of the sidewall of the bucket, and the brace is positioned against the sidewall, to hold the frame and the pan in rearwardly leaning positions on said bucket, and
• wherein in use gold ore is introduced into the pan while the pan is rotating, and relatively large particles of the ore gravitate radially across the pan and rib and over the sidewall, and out of the pan, into the bucket, and small gold particles will be held by the rib and be moved by the rib upwardly along the spiral path of the rib into the gold particle collecting hub region of the pan.