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Having prospected several times over the years in WA and your being new to it I suggest waiting till next April thru August and look into taking a gold tour out of Kalgoorie. That time frame is the typical "Gold Season" as the deserts are mild at that time of year. There are several outfits that do tours and some have detector hires available. You'll need your own vehicle and a couple of weeks off but its a good way to gain a bit of experience prospecting in Australia. If you decide to give it an additional go, a good way to meet friends and have a go on your own later on. Kal is about 8 hours strait drive from Perth and in the heart of the WA gold fields. Lots of interesting stuff to see on the way out as well. Until next gold season read up on prospecting and prospectors in WA. Loads of information on it in the net and at the library. Get a good detector for the parks there in Perth and get some practice in ? Lot of lost kangaroo's and abo's to find while you wait. Also you might want to check out this old thread authored by Fred Mason. Lots of pictures and some info on the gold fields.

Hi, Limonite is a mineral that forms when an iron rich mineral like magnetite, hematite, marcasite, pyrite and even some iron rich garnets begin to decompose through exposure to water and air. There are several more iron rich minerals that can decompose that are more obscure. Generally there is still some of the original iron mineral left towards the inner parts of the specimen. The only one of the five above that is strongly magnetic and will easily set off your detector and pinpointer is magnetite. So, if that is an actual mineral specimen it is probably limonite and magnetite. It would be pretty odd to find a magnetite specimen in your area since magnetite is usually associated with higher temperature igneous/metamorphic rock and mineral formation and not low temperature sedimentation. Also, it does not have the same outer appearance as the meteorites I am familiar with. They are usually much more compact and hard in appearance without so many uneven and eroded surfaces as the specimen you found. That makes oldmancoyote1's guess a very good one. Limonite looks a lot like rust on man-made iron and the two have similar characteristics in other ways too. Jeff

Go ICMJ! I just want to voice my support for this fine publication. I have received the Mining Journal since I started metal detecting in 1994. I have kept each and every copy. I must say that Chris's contributions have really been instructive and I wish you could write more, Chris. So much is going on politically and the publisher, Scott Harn, is supporting issues that effect all of us out in the gold fields. I hope there is a lot of new subscribers! Bugler

I posted this over in the meteorite forum, but after some research I wonder if the mystery rock I found is Limonite. I found this at a Fort Lauderdale beach yesterday, pretty far away from the water at a volleyball court. It was about 10 inches down in the sand, and my PI metal detector locked on to this pretty easily. I have a Pro Find 35 pinpointer, which makes a different sound for ferrous items, which it does on this rock. It weighs about 76 grams, seems unusually heavy for its size, and a magnet does stick to it. Before I send it anywhere for analysis, I was wondering if anyone here might have any thoughts? Possible Limonite?

At the ICMJ we've decided to post a free issue of the prospecting and Mining Journal magazine on the internet for any new folks who are around to see what it is. (Also experienced prospectors who are wondering about the magazine). We have up to date articles about how to get more gold in your prospecting, legal issues and the best equipment out there for finding gold. If you have any interest in prospecting, this is the magazine you will the most learn from. I may be a little biased as I'm the assistant Editor, but on the other hand I've been getting this magazine since the late 1970s and its always been a lot of fun. Take a look, I think you'll be glad you did. I you want to subscribe, the subscription info is on the inside of the last page. Its worth not missing a single issue. https://www.icmj.com/resources/news-and-events/miners-news/free-online-sample-issue-392/

Davs scores again!? Enjoy" Ig

Yup that's gold alright...

Hi Kevin… I think that oldmancoyote and Jeff have probably nailed down the more likely alternatives for you, given the location. Its moderate depth in Florida sand leads me to suspect that it is probably a manmade ferrous object that may have reached that depth over some number of years with the ensuing obvious corrosion. As Steve mentions, it is difficult to assess just what types of corrosion products exist on your sample. Iron metal corrodes to rust and manmade rust is a form of iron oxide called maghemite, which frequently does react to metal detectors depending on its physical characteristics, the ground conditions, the type of metal detector, and how it is operated. I very much doubt that a chunk of magnetite would naturally occur in your area. As mentioned above, limonite is a generic term describing a number of hydrated (containing water) iron oxides that can present themselves in different ways and in vastly different environments. A good example is to recall driving along a highway that has been blasted / cut through pre-existing igneous rock that could be comprised of any one of several different types of rocks. Iron is a very abundant element and in all probability does exist within such rocks. Upon exposure to weathering, even trace amounts of ferrous material will oxidize to form a natural rust on the exposed surface of those rocks. This is a good example of why limonite is described in mineralogical texts as “Nature’s Rust”. It is typically the goethite constituent that produces generally brown soils in temperate regions around the globe. My limonite samples produce no effect on a PI metal detector and very little on a VLF detector. It exhibits relatively little magnetic susceptibility and incidentally can be characterized as having a fairly low magnetic loss angle, thus permitting it to occupy a somewhat similar area to magnetite on VLF ground phase readouts. But it simply has no ferromagnetic strength that is comparable to magnetite or maghemite. Hence, I rather do think something metallic within your sample has produced the signal. The photo below depicts another commonplace example of what is described as amorphous (without shape) limonite. The F75 GB45 compensation point should ensure that all iron oxides produce only a negative threshold signal and that is the case. This sample does not react to my TDI Pro at the sensitive 10 usec pulse delay, small mono coil, full gain, and with ground balance turned OFF.

Thanks! Mike

Back to the mystery ring.. had it laying in the cellar and it got dull. Today my chinese scale arrived, so I did a quick confirmation test. In the dry: In the wet: 4,34/0,51 ~ 8,51g/cm³ Specific density of brass: 8,73g/cm³ - there you have it How ever.. at least I own a small scale now

I would have to use my down sleeping bag at night if it was only 40 C !!!

It is near impossible to tell from a photo but it looks like decomposed sulphides, typical of gossans.

Got a notice today, that a pinpointer with the newest firmware version is on its way to me..

It could be a hunk of deep rust off a large iron object. Perhaps it has an iron core. You could crack it open to see.

Never had a problem switching into the wrong frequency by accident. I regularly hit the mode button when I intended to hit the settings button however, and then have to cycle all the way back to where I was. I do wish the frequency button and user profile button were reversed... I might just mode switch more often were that the case.

Does not look anything like a meteorite to me.

And all I gotta do is act naturally

THE Tour Operators will usually rent you a detector, such as a GPZ... PLease, do not buy just any detector. Oz has the worst ground... fred

Crikey, River Rat, Nurse Pauls a proper convict now...………...

No there is no more gold in Australia......especially Western Australia! ?

Yes, the features do matter to people and in my opinion it is the best way to separate these models one from the other. There are key features some models have that others do not, and if one of these features is important to you than it makes weeding the choices down much easier. High frequency gold nugget detector comparison chart - click for larger version World Bored With High Frequency Detectors? Makro Gold Racer 56 kHz - $599 one coil Fisher Gold Bug 2 71 kHz - $699 one coil White's Goldmaster 24K 48 kHz - $729 one coil White's GMT 48 khz - $729 one coil Makro Gold Kruzer 61 kHz - $749 two coils Minelab Gold Monster 1000 45 kHz - $799 two coils Nokta AU Gold Finder 56 kHz - $799 two coils XP Orx up to 81 kHz - $799 one coil Minelab Equinox 800 Multi or 40 kHz - $899 one coil

I have a YOUtube channel but i dont like sharing stuff on it---- especially after seeing how people used the Goldhounds and others videos to exploit their good nature by following them to their patches. Facebook is easy for me to upload immediately.... but not everyone on the forum is my friend on FB and some probably would get tired of seeing some of my antics anyway... In a perfect world for me ---- i could upload directly to a channel here on the forum.---but I dont even want to guess what kind of gyrukus that would be for Steve. ? I know that everytime i video somethj9ng with my phone it syncs to my Google photos and i can make albums like i did recently and share a link to that album.... I think, after writing all this, that that Google photos link is probably the best way to go---that wont stuff up the forums servers and it will take minimal time as I learn how to edit videos (if i edit) and get them on the forum as links.

It's not so much the Monster is killing it as it was the location I had (key word had) was made for the Monster! Hopefully I can somehow change the had back to a have next season? Speaking of bears.....a guy got slapped around yesterday by one pretty good as they had to airlift him out. Happened 120mi north of me near Goldseeker's neighborhood. It does happen once in awhile and a close friend has 50+ stitches in his arm from one mix up about 8-10 yrs ago...….. Another reason I like the LOUD speaker on the Monster...might warn off any bear? Only time you'll most likely have bear trouble is when you accidently surprise them. Usually if they hear you first they'll avoid you...Grizzly all bets are off, unpredictable.

The AT Pro was a real breakthrough for features and price when it came out. There are so many great deals on detectors these days it is hard not to revisit some old favorites. Garrett 2018 Metal Detector Catalog Garrett AT Pro ManualGarrett AT Gold ManualGarrett AT Max Manual Garrett AT metal detector models compared

The detector arrived Friday so I got to use it Sunday. Using the ATPro is like riding a bicycle. Once you have done it once its no problem to do it again. Very nice. Nothing special to report for my maiden hunt other than a little over $7 in clad. ($4.75 in quarters, $1.70 in dimes, /.50 cents in nickels, and about 20+ pennies. I like Pro mode for most stuff, but I like STD mode for digging aluminum. Aluminum range targets really stand out in STD mode, and I dig a LOT of aluminum. I'll probably use STD mode in my patches and Pro mode everywhere else. I'm very pleased with it. HH Mike

New Post.....Wow! Go Jay-Gold! ? Enjoy! Ig

The weather is finally starting to break here in Sunny Yuma. Still hitting the high 80's but the mornings are decent. I got out for a few hrs this morning to try out the new SteelPhase signal enhancer. I picked one up from Rob at Rob's Detectors in Surprise, AZ. I'm a sucker for every new piece of equipment that might give me an edge on the other guys. I wired the SP01 directly to the Z7000 with my in-ear monitors (earbuds) plugged into the headphone jack of the unit, I didn't use the standard Minelab wireless module for this test. I can't say I wouldn't have found this nugget without the SteelPHASE but it didn't hurt. The signal was very faint in some pretty active ground. After I was fairly certain I had a faint signal I ran through the "filters" on the SP01. Position 3 really dulls all the tones, but the faint target signal was still pretty clear. Position 2 seemed to be the best. It was a long tedious dig getting through the interlocking rocks of a deep desert gully. At about 18 inches I was down to sensitivity level 1 on the detector and still having trouble with the tone overload. I got out my new and unused Minelab Pro-Find pinpointer (more toys) and bingo, pinpoint problems solved. The 2 nuggets were actually attached by a thin strand of gold but came apart when I tried to clean the dirt off. A good morning all in all. I have detected this gully at least half a dozen times, and I know that BeatUp has detected it at least as many times. I saw BeatUp's well covered and concealed dig holes so it has been a producer in the past. Next time out I'll try and check targets with and without the SP01 to see what kind of difference there might exist.

..that is a crystalline pyrite from Navajun-Spain-from times when I did not have a metal detector ...,also nice times...only hammers and mowers..

Jim, I am posting another picture of Limonite after pyrite. I think it is my best specimen and one more of gold in quartz with crystals. The picture doesn't show the crystals very good, but they are all over it Norm

good stuff Norm i like it when i see Limonite on the ground be it in quartz or single crystals like those you are showing.

I’ve learned on the areas I hunt the most the bigger the crystals the bigger the gold.

Welcome aboard! Best of luck.

Too you as well. Be sure to share some of your finds.