Is recreational panning legal here?
Yes — B.C. is the most panner-friendly province in Canada. You can hand-pan for gold in a watercourse using only a gold pan and a hand shovel without any licence or Free Miner Certificate, as long as you are not inside an existing mineral or placer claim or lease, a park or protected area, a reserve or heritage site, private property, or First Nations land without permission.
The province also maintains designated recreational panning reserves where hand panning is expressly welcomed. Anything beyond a pan and a hand shovel — sluices, high-bankers, dredges — is placer mining, and needs a Free Miner Certificate, a claim, and permits.
Where you can go
- Recreational panning reserves — the Mineral Titles Branch keeps an official list and web map of reserves set aside for hand panning. Classic Fraser Canyon ground around Hope, Yale, and Lillooet (Cayoosh Creek) is the best known — confirm each reserve's boundaries on the ministry map before you go.
- Barkerville Historic Town & Park (Cariboo) — the restored gold-rush town offers visitor gold panning in season.
- Unclaimed watercourses — legal for hand panning provided the ground is not claimed, a park, protected, a reserve, or private. Check Mineral Titles Online first, every time.