Championships

Barciaecus Goldpanners Association celebrates every year, since more than a decade, the Spanish Goldpanning Championship.

This event takes place in Navelgas (Tineo - Asturias) during the last weekend of July coinciding with the Folk Music Festival "Cuarto de los Valles".

In 2005, Navelgas was the venue for the European Goldpanning Championship, where Goldpanners from the whole Europe and the rest of the world took part.

The last week of July (21st to 27th) Navelgas will host the 2008 World Goldpanning Championship.

The Association has also took part in several World and European Championships, since its fundation. In collaboration with other Friend-Associations, has took part representing Spain in dfferent countries.

WAY OF COMPETITION

In all International Championships every goldpanner has a bucket with 10 - 20 kg. of sand, dependending on the different categories.

Inside the sand, a number of gold nuggets have been mixed, only known by the jury, which varies between 5 and 20, depending on the round and categorie. They have as well a gold-pan and a small cristal or plastic tube to keep the nuggets.

Competitiors are situated in single water boxes, where they should clean the sand to find gold, in a time that varies from 10 to 20 minutes.

 Every round last from 15 until 20 minutes. Before it starts, the pan is cleaned and the gold tube is getting ready, filling it with water. When the competitior finishes the sand, must close the tube and raise the pan to make the time to stop.

At the end of the time all participants who did not eraise their pans are disqualify. Classification is obteined by the goldpanner time, being the champion the one who has the lowest time. To lost a nugget means a penalitation of 5 minutes more over the time.