Why You Get A Minelab - Dig Big Nuggets Deeper!

[Steve Herschbach]

As many of you know I owned the placer operations at Moore Creek Mine in Alaska for many years. We ran a very successful "pay-to-mine" operation there. I am still an owner of the lode portion of the property but sold the placer and pay-to-mine operation in the winter of 2009.

As part of the deal with the new owners I was to run the first week of the pay-to-mine with them on hand to show them the ropes and ease the transition. Gerry McMullen of Gerry's Detectors booked a group in the first week of 2010, my last week of running the show. Real nice group, and some very proficient operators, a guy named Spencer among them.

It was a great week with a pile of gold found, but like all good things had to draw to a close. On the last day everyone was out looking one last time, and Spencer got a signal directly across the pond from the camp in an area where quite a bit of gold had been found in the past. The little pile there was pretty well mowed flat, but Spencer got a nice faint low tone target. He dug. And dug. And dug.

Now to his credit he knew there was also some deep trash in the immediate area, and the tone was more likely to be junk than a big nugget. And he was tired. But he came over to the camp and borrowed a long handle shovel and went back to it. It was his last target and he was going to finish it.

I am in camp and I hear some whooping and hollering. Spencer hit the big time! He had dug a lot of gold in his nugget detecting career, but the nearly one pound nugget he had just found blew away his previous finds for size!

It is always fun being around something like that. The excitement is infectious. I went over to see the hole and frankly it was amazing. We all sat around taking pictures and here is one I got of Spencer standing in the hole the nugget came out of. The nugget weighed in at 11.88 ounces.

Spencer with 11.88 Ounce Nugget at Moore Creek, Alaska (click on photo for larger version)

The nugget was found with a Minelab GPX 4500. There was over 30 ounces of gold found that week and Spencer's was one of the larger ones ever found in my years at the mine - it was nice to go out with a bang. Spencer really earned that nugget though, many people would have decided it was a can and walked away. More about Spencer

Sadly the new owners were not able to keep the pay-to-mine going. Hosting people in the middle of nowhere Alaska is not for everyone and 2010 was the last summer people could pay to visit the mine. The owners shifted to a pure mining operations and were successfully operating through the end of last season. I may stop out and visit them this summer. Has to be another big nugget lurking at Moore Creek!

 

[fredmason]

Steve, you gave many people an opportunity to visit the wilds of Alaska and hunt the big ones, I am still and will always be grateful for that experience.

As for Minelabs and big holes all of my deep holes have been trash at the bottom of the hole...but, I know I have a whopper scheduled sometime before I forsake the game.

 

fred

[Rick Watkins]

Steve, you guys ever figure totaled gold finds at moore creek mine from paying customers?

Thats one place I wish I had the chance to experience, I've seen a lot of pictures from steve and ritas

Trips there. I had the chance once to sign up with them but thought I was to busy, wish I would have

now. Sounded like a heck of an experience. Maybe one day you will make another find like moore creek

and srart up another pay to mine down in the lower part of the nation, just a thought. Rick.

[AkNugget]

Very nice find!  But it begs the question...would a  ATX have picked it up??

 

Neal

[Steve Herschbach]

The pay to mine was pretty consistent at about 75 ounces per year into visitors pockets. So over the six years visitors took home close to 500 ounces total. About 100 ounces of that was in eight nuggets.

I understand the desire to believe that a $2100 detector equals a $5800 detector in performance but I am not one of those that share that belief. I am a big fan of the Garrett ATX but if I was headed to Moore Creek tomorrow to look for the big nugget everyone else has missed and could only take one detector, I would be packing my GPX 5000.

[Rick K - First Member]

Sadly, I have no 12 oz gold nuggets to test, and don't feel like digging a 2 - 3 foot deep hole either.

Lacking a lump of lead the right weight, I scrounged up a brass door lock assembly, round brass mounting boss and all, about 2.5" diameter and weighing nine oz.

In air, my ATX with sensitivity on 13 picked it up out to about 20". My SD-2100 with an 11" mono coil got it out to about 25".

That proves nothing, of course, but the ML is definitely deeper than the ATX by some noticeable margin.

[goldenoldie]

In air, my ATX with sensitivity on 13 picked it up out to about 20". My SD-2100 with an 11" mono coil got it out to about 25".

That proves nothing, of course, but the ML is definitely deeper than the ATX by some noticeable margin.

 

Rick if your test with the ATX was with its standard 12" DD than I doubt the DD would be equivalent in size to an 11" mono so therefore I would expect an advantage using the 11" mono. 

[Rick K - First Member]

Goldenoldie -

No doubt, and air isn't ground!!!

I have a random bit of lead - maybe 15 grams or so buried in my moderate mineralized AZ dirt, and the ATX does about as well- maybe better - than the SD-2100 on that.

What is really interesting to me is that my location is pretty much EMI hell. None of my VLF's like it here on discriminate, they warble and spit. My TDI has a steady warble no matter what I do, the ATX will not usually tolerate more than 10-11 on sensitivity. With all that, my SD-2100 - with it's terrible reputation for the warbles, runs smoother than my TDI. Mind you, it is fed by a regulated 7.5 volt battery pack and this is supposed to smooth out these SD machines. My pack is an older Reed's Prospecting model in a solid billet Aluminum box - not the new cute clip on ones.

My next purchase will be a ML harness. The ATX is heavy as lead and my old joints need all the support they can get. I have tried a simple harness I got with the SD-2100, but it puts too much weight on the right shoulder. The Garrett sling is hopeless for me. If you are a Large or Extra Large in a dress shirt and if you don't mind something cutting off the circulation in your offside armpit, it might be OK.

But I digress!

I hope to get out soon to test my trio in the goldfields.