WORLD champion gold-panner, Matt Kelava, has invented his own gold pan to defend the title in Japan this year.
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Mr Kelava, better known as "Matt the Tailor", said initial testing of the new pan indicated it could shave more than 15 seconds off the existing record.
"I have had this vision for 15 years," Mr Kelava said of the innovative new pan that is now being manufacturing after a process of trial and error.
He won the world teams event at the world championships in Maryborough last year and said after losing gold from his old pan he was determined to build the new one in time for his title defence.
The keen gold prospector said the patented spiral design was inspired by black holes in space.
The spiral design creates a vortex, where heavy metals are sucked to the centre of the pan while all other material is simply washed away.
"It's very simple and very accurate, also there's three catchments before the gold leaves the pan," he said adding that the pan also separates gold from dirt far more efficiently.
"`Everyone else seemed to think it was clever, to me it was just a drawing," Mr Kelava said after conducting hundreds of demonstrations at the weekends Gold Expo.
Such is the interest in the new pan, Sovereign Hill have already purchased one for it's world famous gold museum.
And while Ballarat's Gekko Systems continue to send its state of the art mineral processing equipment around the world, Matt the tailor is also hopeful of tapping into the export market, with 5 million gold-panners in America alone.
"If we can export this surely the government can do something to help ... we can make a few hundred thousand and send them around the world, that is my wish," Mr Kelava said.
He is already selling the pans in Melbourne and Tasmania and Adelaide metal detector manufacturer, Coil Tech, has offered to make the product.