The GPZ Gold Rush

[Hotrock]

 Great post Steve. I share the same sentiment.

[wirelessguy]

On 2/24/2015 at 9:06 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

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The entire Electronic Gold Rush has taken place in my adult lifetime and I am likely to see the day when there are only a few diehards left at it. The good news is in my opinion we are on the eve of what may possibly be the last gasp, the last breath of fresh air.

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 I have a chance to participate in what may very well be the last chapter of the electronic gold rush - The GPZ Gold Rush. 

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"640k is more memory than anyone will ever need"  

"everything that can be invented, has been invented"

I dunno Steve.   I don't think it's a good bet to bet against technological advances.    Electronic prospecting suffers from being such a small market worldwide.   There really are a very small number of talented engineers and scientists working on the problem. In a recent forum conversation with Carl Moreland on the topic he replied to me there are probably more engineers developing 35 mm film cameras than metal detectors today.   As you have noted Minelab seems to have no company biting its heels in second place.

I don't have a logical prediction of what will trump GPZ 7000 (assuming it proves to be another quantum success).

I'll throw a couple thoughts out though.   In most of my lifetime (and I'm the same age as you) technology advancements have mostly been made in corporations and by people working full time in the craft.   The only notable area where amateur hobbyists were consistent dabblers and improvers was ham radio.

In the last decade or so we've seen a huge rise in what's often termed the "maker movement".   It is a large groundswell of DIYers.  Not just technology for sure, even bloggers might loosely be in the movement.   In the last 10 years, a <$100 kit of microcontroller board with various I/O (input/output) and a simple programming language you can learn on your own and an internet of people teaching and sharing has become widespread. Readily available $10ish chips have more computing power than Apollo 11.    Doing this stuff is very quickly getting to more people who are interested and have chutzpah.

Maybe it's not low frequency induction based technology after the GPZ?   Imaging is advancing so rapidly.  In the 90s 1 MPixel was high def and expensive.   Add  image recognition which is growing in capability radically to cheap digital imagery and maybe someone can move ground penetrating radar (way more depth than induction techniques) into enough resolution to economically determine a nugget from a nail?   (I know, I know I know, ... a lot more issues than just that.  some engineers read this stuff  :-)  )

I am not predicting "what" specifically as much as I bet on "will" happen.  For sure some ebbs and floods just like the last two centuries of gold rushes.

[Steve Herschbach]

I am not betting against technology. I am betting I will be too old to care!

[klunker]

 I read in an old book that "anything mankind can imagine he can do". It sort of scares me as I often have a runaway imagination. Things like depth, discrimination, inexpensive.......

[doc holiday]

Great post Steve--sorta makes me feel like the old fire horse when he hears the bell.

[IdahoAl]

Amen to that Doc..........

[Norvic]

Indeed the electronic gold rush with each tech advance has brought on much excitement. The GPZ "rush" has got me now joining forums, something this old fella has till now avoided. My purpose for joining is not for just enjoyment of posting with like individuals but also to leave for future generations some account of the electronic gold rush. We are a very privileged generation to live through VLF, PI and now ZVT gold prospecting. Top forum you have here Steve, Thank You.

[NuggetBob]

Nice article Steve but I disagree with that "We are in the latter days of the electronic gold rush". Heck my old Cat 420 can keep on pushing deeper and I think Minelab will keep getting better. Even if they don't lots of deep areas left to push. Permits and Plans of Operation can be a pain but you get thru it. Cheer up folks!

[brogansown]

Minelab has made a commercial decision to both create a powerful innovative gold finding machine and simutaneously price it out of the reach of 90% of the metal detecting hobbyists.  So as an engineer who built his first metal detector in 1964 and used every trick and innovation to eek out another 1/4 inch of depth, I applaud what appears to be a great leap forward in detection and at the same time I am confused at Minelab's marketing tactic.

Steve is right, we are, at least here in my area, pretty much at the tail end of our nugget finding efforts with metal detectors  and the GPZ 7000 will, it seems, take us to the end and I think the 90% would like to be in on it.  Having said all that, I am reading with great interest the pros and cons of the 7000 and the 2300, which I might be able to afford if I can prove to myself that it will outperform my 4500 and Gold Bug 2.

So I encourage those of you who have the 7000 to provide videos and pictures of your finds, but please mention all the bullets, nails, tin and tobacco tags that come along with the effort.  Most of us devoted nugget finders I believe, have our own secret patches that we think are worked out, but hope that a few more pieces lie just six inches below the reach of our GPX's and I guess that is where we will have to leave them for now.  Maybe I can morgage the house.

[NuggetBob]

Most of us devoted nugget finders I believe, have our own secret patches that we think are worked out, but hope that a few more pieces lie just six inches below the reach of our GPX's and I guess that is where we will have to leave them for now.  

 

brogansown...r u kidding me? six inches...that's not far...just get the pick and shovel out and start at the best possible place you can determine! Grid that ol patch off and dig, you'll find more gold. I gotdang guarantee it