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Detecting Gold In Tailing Piles & Placer Digs - Article With Photos


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The exact reason I got an MXT 300 was to target some massive bucket dredge tailing piles in my neck of the woods. I tried with my PI but it was just a bit awkward on the steep faces of the piles due to its weight & the angle of having to detect on. Not to mention the loose state of the rubble piles. Seemed like one step forward & two backwards. Bloody hard detecting. Lots of deep rubbish & no gold. It was a hot summer day back then. I only lasted a few hours & gave up on it. Got the MXT & guess what...haven't been back since. Now I have the Nox 800 with the larger coil so that will be my detector of choice today. Must get back into those old piles.

G4G 

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On 3/13/2021 at 10:04 AM, Cascade Steven said:

Gerry:  Thanks for once again sharing this information with those of us that are new to the forum.  I was able to download it without issue on my PC.

I'm glad someone pulled it out of hibernation and posted it for everyone.  Yes there are quite a few newer detectorists who are on here now, so this bit of info might help.

Thanks for being patient.

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That is a POST that should be read by most people who detect. It backs up my experience. I don't discriminate at all with PI machines as junk iron is usually too shallow, if it is deep I'm detecting outside my choice of ground. With VLF machines I always lift the coil to a height that brings the volume down to a low distinct value then discriminate and not over loading the earphones and detector this would help in guessing the size and shape as you mention in the article .................I have one point of your article that needs updating ........ your 5th photo has the Quote "Can a metal detector really find deep, tiny nuggets? Author Gerry McMullen has the answer right at his fingertips! "  Most of us would say that is not tiny these days 😉

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On 3/15/2021 at 11:27 PM, geof_junk said:

That is a POST that should be read by most people who detect. It backs up my experience. I don't discriminate at all with PI machines as junk iron is usually too shallow, if it is deep I'm detecting outside my choice of ground. With VLF machines I always lift the coil to a height that brings the volume down to a low distinct value then discriminate and not over loading the earphones and detector this would help in guessing the size and shape as you mention in the article .................I have one point of your article that needs updating ........ your 5th photo has the Quote "Can a metal detector really find deep, tiny nuggets? Author Gerry McMullen has the answer right at his fingertips! "  Most of us would say that is not tiny these days 😉

You bring up some good points as well.  What I don't understand is so many folks won't hunt tailing piles because of trash and that is exactly why some of the piles still produce nice gold.  It's the same reason I enjoy old coin detecting at sites filled with old iron rusty cans and bits of metal, nails and trash.  They still hold the occasional old coin in amongst the trash and it takes time, patience and a little skill.

Tiny over 10 yrs ago is a different meaning than today's tiny gold.  Good catch.

Today's tiny is this pics below, although I would not hunt for this size of gold in tailing piles.  All found with a VLF by one of my old staff using his GB-2 and 6" coil.

DSCN0004.JPG

DSCN0036.JPG

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Hey Gerry,

  Great article.  I had some great times hunting tailing piles in Alaska thanks to Steve H. and Moore Creek and many other locations.  I never had the fortunate luck of hitting anything super big, but a few ounce to two ounce specimen pieces were still great finds with handfuls of small nuggets and specimens.  

In the dry arid desert regions of the Southwest, you can also hunt drywasher tailing piles.  I have had great success hunting them in certain spots with many sizeable nuggets that were just too big for the old-timer and even more modern day drywasher screens.  

Like you mentioned Gerry, the PI can be an advantage or disadvantage when it comes to deep, iron rubbish.  I spent many hours digging faint targets that ended up being chunks of iron down several feet deep.  At some point, you just hope one of those targets will be a huge gold nugget, worth all time and effort digging. 

Wishing you all gold under your searchcoils. 

Rob

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