A 10-strong New Zealand contingent — all current or former national champions — will compete at the World Gold Panning Championships in the Scottish town of Moffat from August 7 to 12.
Seven are from Wakatipu, the country’s gold-panning stronghold and home to the annual national championships, held in Arrowtown.
Team member Stu Ide said it would be the biggest contingent to leave these shores. Usually only one or two panners went overseas for the annual world champs.
They would compete in a wide range of individual, pair and team categories against 400 panners from 60 countries.
The sport involved panning a bucket of dirt "salted" with gold flakes as quickly as possible, Mr Ide said.
A judge then counted the flakes, and added a three-minute penalty for every flake missed.
Success came down to technique and treading the fine line between speed and accuracy, he said.
Another competitor, David Gatward-Ferguson, will be competing alongside wife Amanda and their son, James.
He said the sport required a "blind faith" in the physics of gold being denser than dirt and water.
The five best-performed New Zealand competitors in the preliminary rounds will compete together in the teams category as the ‘Black Pans’.
