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New Minelab Pi Announcement Date 2020


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If the GPZ is the last great flagship and it's just ergonomic/weight improvements from here on out, then is nugget shooting effectively dead? I don't see a purpose for ML to file all the patents they did in the last few years if that's the case. 

But, every year I see 5 or 10 long time detectorists retire or pass away, and maybe 1 new guy join and stick with it. So, the customer base must be shrinking yearly here in the US.

Is there is still a healthy market for GPZ's in the US (ignoring Central America)? Are there enough serious detectorists left in 5 years to even keep dealers afloat (without diversifying into primarily coin/beach machines) unless a new flagship with major tech improvements were to come out?

Seems to me the time to release a machine is ASAP if it's going to happen at all. Am I misunderstanding this?

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I hear you Jason, I don't see just a repackaged 7000 being a big hit unless they have a price drop comparable with the Equinox. But that just doesn't seem like Minelab style for their big gun gold detector.

 

 

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On 1/23/2020 at 9:13 AM, phrunt said:

I think Nugget depletion largely depends on where you live.  I've spoken to a few guys in Australia now that still make their living out of prospecting.  A guy I was talking to yesterday on the phone in QLD goes out for a month or so a year and makes over $60,000 AUD in gold for that month, he's about to go on a short trip next week which he'll get more on than I'll likely get in my lifetime prospecting in my area.

He SMS'd me photos of some of his gold after the phone call to show me.  I won't put the photos up as they're not mine to display.

He wouldn't blink an eye and paying for a newer better GPZ if it appeared.  It wouldn't even have to be better performing, lighter would do.  If you're out swinging all day everyday in the heat getting good gold you'd pay anything for a lighter detector with the same performance.

I imagine people in Russia and Africa and other regions of the World with gold would think the same.  I guess a majority of the successful prospectors don't spend their time on Internet showing photos of their finds 🙂

I don't think Minelab need to worry about nugget depletion yet, prospectors like myself who do it for a hobby would be a small insignificant part of their market.

I'm seriously considering a trip to Australia for prospecting.  The flights over only cost about two drives fuel to a local prospecting area.

Let me know if you do haha I've been waiting to do same maybe we could get a group all go together cut down on costs etc 

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51 minutes ago, WesD said:

I hear you Jason, I don't see just a repackaged 7000 being a big hit unless they have a price drop comparable with the Equinox. But that just doesn't seem like Minelab style for their big gun gold detector.

I agree, that's about the price that it'd have to be to get me to buy a repackaged 7000. But even then, I'm not sure I'd buy it personally...?

It'll be interesting to see just how much lighter the NF coils are (and how affordable). Because a repackaged GPZ might not have a ton of new customers if the new machine ended up the same weight as an old 7000+NF coil. Especially if the repackaged GPZ lacked coil selection and required a NF purchase on top anyways. The coil is the big weight problem, not the electronics housing. 

I do know a lot of people have sold their GPZ's due to the weight issue, so maybe there would be a lot re-buying?

But who am I kidding... :smile: I want a dream machine and I'd personally take a salt-cancelling Boat Anchor 8000 with another 40% sensitivity boost and a stock 17x12 elliptical for $2500 any day over that! 

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5 hours ago, nugget hunter nz said:

I wonder if any detector company's will look into GPR sonar for detecting making fast wave sonar tuned to bounce back off gold this would give massive depth improvements. Whether the tech or knowledge is there yet who knows.. They already use it to find large stashes etc 

GPR for use on the goldfields and versions thereof were trialed, developed, altered, modified and re-trialed many times over the years and all failed to live up to expectations due to the mineralized ground conditions. 1st one I saw was back in the 90's. Various European and US companies attempted it.

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14 minutes ago, Aureous said:

GPR for use on the goldfields and versions thereof were trialed, developed, altered, modified and re-trialed many times over the years and all failed to live up to expectations due to the mineralized ground conditions. 1st one I saw was back in the 90's. Various European and US companies attempted it.

And numerous European and Chinese companies still flog them off at prices that make a GPZ look like pocket money.

They swear they are the ultimate for gold detecting and people with either more money than brains, or no money and a bank loan with unrealistic dreams still buy them.

I'm yet to hear of one actually work to detect nuggets.

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yes thats a multi IQ machine with a narrow band GPR...Called the MDS10 nowadays. Still not for gold prospecting unfortunately....

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