Kulani Mavunda
21 September 2007
Gold panners will descend on the historical gold-mining town of Pilgrim's Rest in Mpumalanga province this weekend for the annual South African Gold Panning Championships.
Mpumalanga's department of culture, sport and recreation, together with the South African Gold Panning Association (Sagpa), have hosted the championship since it began in 1997.
"No special physical attributes are required other than enthusiasm and passion," said department spokesperson Sammy Mpatlanyane.
Participants will use pans to search for gold nuggets by sifting through muddy water. Each competitor receives a pan and a bucket of sand in which a specific number of nuggets are hidden.
The winner will have panned out the most nuggets in the shortest time.
Only the chief judge knows how many nuggets are in the buckets and participants will be penalised if any go missing.
The competition will also include activities such as a digger's dance, wheelbarrow race, digger's pub-crawl, can-can girls, a gold symposium, geological tours and cultural dance.
Every year since 1997, South Africa has been represented at the World Gold Panning Championships, which are held in a different country each year.
The number of participants at the SA National championships has grown from 78 in 1997 to 707 competitors in 2006.
Over the past 10 years the department and Sagpa have succeeded in making it possible for more than 80 South Africans of all ages, genders and races to attend World Championships in Europe, Australia and Japan.
Although South Africa is the youngest member of the World Gold Panning Association's 20 member countries, South African gold panning has over the last decade become a prominent part of the international gold panning fraternity.
The 2005 World Gold Panning Championships, hosted by South Africa at Pilgrim's Rest, was widely acknowledged by the international gold panning fraternity to have been a resounding success and a benchmark event.
Source: BuaNews
