If you can see what you think is gold in that pan full of sand (as in the picture), it is most likely not gold but mica or pyrites or fools gold.
Real gold will be hidden under the sand, and you almost never see it until you pan out almost all of the other material (sand and rocks from the pan).
Being a beginner to panning for gold, I would put some pieces of lead in the pan similar to the size of the gold, count the pieces of lead so you can retrieve them all after finished panning for the gold.
The gold is much denser than any of the other materials in the pan, more than three times the density of any sand or gravel, it is denser than the lead.
Shaking the pan any gold and your lead will go to the bottom of the other rocks sand and gravel, now tilting your pan forward to work the heavier materials into the bottom corner of your pan as you violently shake and slosh the pan around and then side to side.
tilting the pan forward dump off the top layers of sand (into your large tub of water used as a catch pan and the source for your panning water.
Reload the pan with water and repeat the process until the only thing left is gold and your lead left in the pan.
after panning off most all of the black sands you can wash the rest away from the gold and lead with carefully rolling of the pan so the water rolls over the top of the sands lightly washing the remaining lighter black sand away from your gold particles and pieces of lead...
with this method, you can separate gold that is almost too small for the eye to see and gold which could be better seen with a jewelers loop, from iron rocks as big as your fist, and any sands or gravels, although classifying your material will make it easier to pan.
Pan the material into a large tub of water so any material you pan from your pan will be caught in the tub (and can be redone if needed.
Pan out everything but the lead and the gold, by panning you can pan out most all of the heavier sands of iron ore composition such as the black sands of hematite and magnetite, which are heavier than the other sands of quartz and other gravels, you can wash away all of the gravel and sands even the heavier sands away from the gold and your pieces of lead with a little practice.
Panning is a skill easy to learn and do, once you get the hang of it.
Panning and practicing with the lead is a good way to learn.
If your gold washes out of the pan before the lead, or if the gold of similar size moves around easier in the pan than the pieces of lead then it is not gold. if you can hammer the gold to pieces it is not gold, gold is malleable and will flatten under the hammer fools gold will shatter or smash to pieces...
A metal detector will react to many different minerals besides gold, in fact, metal detectors or gold detectors are normally better at detecting worthless "hot rocks", trash and iron, and other metals and salts than they are at detecting gold.
Just like panning for gold, using a metal detector to find gold is a skill that takes practice.
