Gold Monster 1000 Vs Equinox 800 Hardrock Mine

[JM2855]

All - wondering if any of you out there have any experience with using either of these detectors inside hardrock mines or on hardrock ore, veins, etc.  I recently purchased both of these detectors and I am interested in the discrimination on gold in an old hardrock mine area.  I have found that the Equinox will find arsenopyrite very nicely in samples, and I have found the GM does not respond at all to large chunks of pyrite in samples I have.  However I am interested in discrimination on gold in rock and veins where there are arsenopyrite, pyrite, large amounts of chalcopyrite, lead, zinc, etc.  Anyone with any experiece with the Equinox in prospecting mode sounding off on any of these minerals (besides gold)?  Anyone with experience with the GM 1000 on any of these minerals in Gold non-ferrous mode?  Since some of the veins have extensive pyrite, chalcopyrite and base metals, I was hoping I could discriminate gold from the other elements in some of the hardrock areas and tailings I've come across in my wanderings. Thanks in advance for sharing any thoughts around these detectors on minerals like that in hard rock and how they would likely respond to them.   

[Steve Herschbach]

The bottom line is there is no easy answer to your question except this. Many minerals will give a non-ferrous response or a ferrous response on a metal detector, or a mix of both. That property is inherent in the mineral, not the detector used. However, detectors have different feature sets. The Gold Monster only separates ferrous from non-ferrous, and gives you the most minimal control over that. The Equinox not only displays target id but allows you to accept or reject based on individual target id numbers. It also allows you to pick from various frequency options, and doing so will help modify the sensitivity to some targets by enhancing some while suppressing others. In short, the GM only has the most basic discrimination possible. The Equinox by comparison has a much deeper toolbox to work with, and would be the better choice for discrimination tasks. With the caveat that you have to learn the multiple controls and how they interact with each other for this to be effective. The Gold Monster keeps it simple for a reason.