Many already know the basics of gold panning: stratify your material by shaking your pan left and right so that the gold sinks down. Then, you wash out the less dense material with water. And repeat. For the last little bit of black sand and gold, many people swirl the water around in a circle to uncover the gold or tip the pan forward and backwards. While this works, it takes so much time, and sometimes results in flakes getting swept too far down the pan. There's a technique you can use to walk the gold back up to the top of the pan, and it is way faster than swishing water around in your pan. It's called the tapping technique, and it separates the gold beautifully.

Here’s how it works. Make sure that you only have a thin layer of material and a little bit of water. You hold your pan with one hand at the side, tilt the pan slightly forward, and tap at the top of the pan. The result is that the gold walks up to the top of your pan, separating from the black sand.

Here's a video of demonstration:
https://youtu.be/oMsTOqa998U?si=3dk7SgSFFCUS317a&t=332

Here's an explanation of the physics behind how it works(written by me). The surprising thing about the physics, is that friction is not the reason the gold walks up faster than the rest of the material. The tapping technique doesn't work if the material is dry. It's the response of the water to the tapping that separates the gold. The details are in the article.
https://chroniclescuriosity.com/advanced-gold-panning-technique-and-the-physics-of-shaker-tables/