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Hit the river bank for an hour, just caught low tide. Bit of clad, game token and snagged this 1903 barber dime (1 year older than GB's Iffy one).

XRF's hold sort a mysterious place on the shelf of semi-unobtainable prospecting equipment. 99% of prospectors don't need one. Maybe this post will help clear up some of mystery around these devices, and show where they can actually be worth the outlay of capital. And why for almost all recreational/hobby prospectors, they are not worth the money. What does an XRF do? In very simple terms you point it at an object and it will tell you what elements are in that object. More on this, and why it isn't this simple, momentarily... After sometime over 5 years of searching, I was finally able to find a used XRF I could afford to finance recently. These are not tools for recreation. They are expensive and require understanding how they work, what tasks you need to accomplish, and understanding the limits of XRF. The trick with these units is to find one with the proper calibrations already installed as they can be many thousands of dollars to send to the manufacturer to get configured correctly for mining/prospecting uses and to add/subtract elements or to calibrate for certain matrixes (silicates/iron/etc). X ray tubes and X ray detectors are about $6k each to replace, and recalibrations are about $1500 a pop, so even maintenance is crazy expensive. It's a tool you need be certain you need or can put to good use before buying one. And buying used, it's probably best to find one with as few hours use as possible to delay the inevitable tube replacement, as well as with a recent calibration certificate. My unit is an XMET 7500 made by Oxford (now Hitachi). The more common units people generally see are the Olympus and Niton guns. This unit has basically every mining calibration Oxford offered on it in addition to soil and other specialized mining related modes, which is very valuable and very useful for prospecting. It also detects down to magnesium without any fancy helium purge techniques. The guns sold on ebay with only alloy calibrations are pretty useless for prospecting without spending a lot of $$$ on additional calibrations. Some other things to consider are the machines themselves vary greatly between model numbers and some models may be unsuitable for specific uses in prospecting. A few things to educate yourself on are: Beam energy and detector type (determines if certain elements can be detected at all, and how accurately) Electrode composition (Gold electrodes have lower sensitivity to gold in ores, for instance) Calibration to light elements, or ability to detect certain elements I don't think an XRF is particularly useful for people who are only looking for gold. Due to the electrode limitations, the PPM minimum to detect gold in ores can often be above what would be an economic (and thus desirable) concentration in gold ores. But, looking for tracer elements (stuff like Pb, Cu, As, Zn, etc) can be quite useful. It can also help outline buried ore bodies which can then be explored mechanically via drilling or other methods. For prospectors branching out beyond just gold however, an XRF can be even more useful. And that's when one needs to understand the elemental limitations and what your application specific uses are. Any affordable XRF today will not detect lighter elements than magnesium. Some will detect to magnesium, but then do not contain calibrations to allow it (extra $$) and some require helium purging to measure light elements. Elements like hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and sodium are very common "rock building" elements. But XRF readings will lack these measurements. So, when a looking at a rock your readings will often give fractional (less than 100%) results. This is why - the missing mass is tied up in atoms lighter than magnesium. Fortuantely, a lot of common rock types have unique fingerprints still in elements such as Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, and Fe. But some don't. This is why it's important to understand what you are looking for first in the field, and then find a tool that is going to match your needs. Further, a lot of minerals in certain locations but not other locations will also have further fingerprints in other elements such as Cr, Co, Mo, Nb, certain compositions of rare earths, etc. To make it more complex (this part took me a while to wrap my head around), each calibration within the machine may or may not be configured for some of these elements - even if they are within the range of detection of the machine! Like, an alloy calibration will have little use for silicon or calcium. Conversely, a mining calibration without magnesium or calcium may be next to useless depending what you are looking for. Of course, it costs extra money to add elements and even if you have for instance a precious metals calibration that includes platinum, the mining mode may not itself include platinum and that's more $. That is why the matrix matters, each mode can be calibrated to a specific matrix. Like mining modes are generally going to assume that the sample is mostly silicon, whereas precious metals mode might assume the only things that exist in the universe are metals. So if you analyze solid metal with mining mode it may misidentify elements thinking they have to be metals when they aren't, same as if you analyzed a piece of gold ore in precious metals mode where it will try to assign certain non-metallic spectra in the ore to something like gold or platinum, giving you false positives. This is why calibrations available and elements assigned to that calibration is so very important when it comes to XRF and accurate results. Why else is XRF bad for gold-specific uses? (I emphasized this because this is primarily a gold prospecting site, even though I prospect for many other things myself). First one needs to understand how XRF works - simply put it kicks a few electrons out of a few different orbitals around an atom at discrete energy intervals (these are spectral "lines"). When another electron falls into the empty orbital to replace the vacancy, another X Ray is emitted at this discreet energy. Unfortunately, some elements have some very close to identical spectral lines. Look here at some lighter elements and see the overlaps on this visible spectra chart that we use to ID elements in stars? Some might be familiar with these from astronomy or high school. Well, the same happens in the X Ray realm. This is coincidentally why ionized gases look a certain color to us and how "neon" signs can be different colors (different elements inside the tubes). The same thing happens in the X ray spectrum, just not visible to our eyes. Except when the X ray spectra is reaaaaaaally crowded around the gold lines. Making it hard for specific ID's when other elements with similar lines are also present in ore, and unfortunately some of the elements are also commonly found with and around gold mineralization. Combine this with the anodes on many affordable XRF's being gold which itself interferes with really precise Au measurements, and you can see why an XRF isn't the best tool for specifically gold prospecting. Here is an actual XRF spectrum. You can see how very common accessory gold ore elements populate and crowd the gold spectral lines at various orbitals. And also how you might be missing critical lines if your X ray tube only goes to say 15kEV instead of 40kEV (EV stands for electron-volts), you might miss some Ag, Ru, Cd, or Zr fingerprints in this specific case. Now notice how iron stands all alone? That's why some elements (iron) are easier for an XRF to ID than others like gold. So for some such tracer elements in soils and ore, and identifying certain minerals which really can only be accurately identified via spectroscopy or thin sections as for some gems, an XRF can save months of time and thousands of dollars for in field qualitative assays to do first stage determinations, ie, wether a resource is simply present or not, ignoring actual concentrations. This is why it's so important for anyone considering one of these units to know exactly what they are looking for first, to know the limitations of XRF, and to know if a unit will meet their application specific needs. Almost every company I spoke with had a story about a prospector, or even a few cases some junior mining companies, who purchased an expensive unit only to find it wouldn't work at all for what they needed to do. So hopefully this clears up a little mystery about XRF's and maybe saves someone from making an expensive $15k mistake. I am by no means an XRF expert and everything I know is just self taught. So if I've included an inaccuracy then please correct me. This is not intended to be definitive, but just to share what I've learned over the years in a few pages of simpler to understand jargon for those prospectors interested in these devices. More later with some actual measurements...

This morning I found a silver Queen Victoria six-pence (1900) in the same hole as this little beauty! I thought at first it might be a pull-tap but Foxy Noxy kept reading a solid 13 instead of flicking between 12/13/14.. am glad I had another dig..

And I think this is it. The area is only 20 feet x 40 feet that has been giving targets and its like there is a line that you cross and all goes quiet. I detected in all directions and with this being soft sand I was able to scrub the sand so could see where I had detected and not missed much. I will just have to keep an eye on it for now for any more changes. This little area has treated me well!! Good Luck to All

I haven't had a lot of time to post lately because work has been picking up, so I added some pictures of my favorite of my better finds. So in my town there was a water main break last Friday and it shut down one of the main thoroughfare through town. I took the detour Saturday, and realized it took me past a park I had only detected once with the simplex. I hated this park because of intense emi, and few signals. There is no baseball backstop, no playground, no soccer goal, but every time I've driven past or stopped to watch, there has been someone throwing a ball for their dog. All week I have been wondering how the new equinox would do there. After work, I stopped by and started working in the area where I seen the dog owners stand. Found a bunch of change, a bunch of pull tabs, but on the 12th to 15th signal I got a solid 17 that just sounded too good to pass up. I started digging thinking it was a bottle cap, and ok it popped the 14k ring. Very next signal 10 feet away was the 925 horse ring. It came in at 28-29 and I was thinking quarter the whole time. All the other finds have been since getting the equinox early February.

When I had a low sodium level the doctor found that I had a blocked artery in my brain. The good news! Saw my doctor today and he thinks it's been there a long time. Maybe from a surgery I had 40 years ago caused it. He doesn't think the Neurologist will even see me. Yesterday I was thinking brain surgery and today it's good news! I thank God for that news! Rick

I found a ring just like yours a couple of years ago. It was 14k, small, just fit my pinkie and wide like yours. It also rang up a solid, smooth sounding 17 and weighed 5.65 grams. Congrats on some nice finds!

These work pretty well for keeping track of pinpointers, $10. It auto retracts 4ft so keeps the pinpointer up high at the top of the backpack shoulder strap for running bigger coils, but long enough to get into 2+ft deep holes when kneeling down and digging. Strap is kevlar, hasn't broken on me after 3 years of field use, I just bought another one last week to put on a new pinpointer. Janitor tech for the win.

Another forum member and I decided to explore some new ground about 80 miles from home in Sunny Yuma. We were working off some of the old USGS pubs for ideas on new areas or at least new areas to us. We set off yesterday exploring offroad in the RZR for these extinct placer works. The first 2 locations really did not look like gold producing areas and we couldn't find any evidence of old workings. Abandoning that area we just started driving some of the old tracks looking for evidence of placer works. By early afternoon we had about decided to give up when I spotted a new, bright yellow claim sign down the end of a wash. We drove down there to see what was the ground looked like. A quick hike revealed the claim owners were drywashing a small gully to bedrock fairly recently. We decided to take an adjacent wash and see if we could find similar looking ground. We drove to the end of the wash and although it was getting late in the day we set off to explore the zone about 1/2 mile from the other claim. There was no sign of placer works in a series of desert washes with shallow bedrock. About 30 minutes in, I get a decent target sound and started digging. My friend ended up in the same gully and came up as I was digging. We got to bedrock and using a pinpointer found a small nugget. He went on while I finished up. I swept the hole one last time and got another tone. To make a long story tolerable, I found 4 nuggets in the same hole. I got another couple tiny nuggets on the way back to the RZR, he got 1. We hit it again today trying to expand on our search. I found a decent nugget right off, then nothing for the next hour. We met up to compare notes, he had found 1 as well. We split up again and not 50 yds away I got a good tone right next to a bedrock dropoff. I dug for close to 45 minutes pulling 8 small nuggets out of the same hole. I found nothing else the rest of the day. He found a spot that produced 3 nuggets in the same hole and a spot that produced 2 nuggets in the same hole. It's not unheard of that certain conditions concentrate the nuggets in a favorable spot. But, the rest of the wash was apparently barren. I supposed if we dug through the overburden there might be more small nuggets on bedrock, but that's like working. We were in essence "blue sky" detecting, not having any specific knowledge about the area. Here in Yuma you can't find a desert wash that hasn't been drywashed, so you have a clue that gold has been found before. Out there, there were no clues to previous gold finds or what might be gold producing areas. So we were lucky, or as Louis Pasteur said "Luck favors the prepared mind". Hard work and persistence paid off this time. It's the possibilities that keep us going, not the probabilities. I'm not computer literate enough to fix these angles, Steve H will step in at some point and make them more viewable. 2.38grams is yesterdays single hole. 2.78 is yesterdays total. 2.52 is todays from a single hole. 1.10 is the lonesome nugget I found this morning. The scoop in the hole shows the glory hole of 8 nuggets. The other photos are both our nuggets from today on the tailgate of my truck. I don't have a weight on his nuggets.

I played with a app called spectrum (for iPhones) to look at detector speaker output from a pi machine, it would probably work better with the signal discrimination of a Nox. Using a phone or mini-pad attached to a Nox would be a great way for a hearing impaired person to detect and be able to see what type of tones are being output from the detector. The image below is a screenshot of the output from Spectrum. It is pretty basic, but it displays real-time frequency, timing and amplitude (dB). It could do this with input from the detector to the phone of target and threshold signals (you would have to watch it real-time to see signal timing). It looks nice and gives some information, however I don’t think the processed sound could be used for digital target recognition, there isn’t enough information for the processed audio signal to do that, but perhaps the raw digital unfiltered signal output could be useful for that- it may have smaller signal nuances that when compared to other known target signal files may me used for this. The technology for doing this is used for Identifying bat species by their call signatures, but there is a lot more species specific information in a bat call including timing, frequency and harmonics. Maybe detecting will go there one day, hopefully soon!

Here is the scoop that never found wet sand that it can't handle. If targets are deep this will go after them more easily than the pull scoop but for shallow targets it is too much.

Where can I order one of those spots for my beach ?🤔

Not sure what coil you are using most these days, but with the 17" I have to have my pointer at shoulder height with the pinpointer hanging over my shoulder and behind my back to not interfere. So the way it works is I grab the pinpointer from behind my armpit basically, then just let go when I'm done and it retracts back. It's attached to the top d-ring on my shoulder strap and naturally hangs on my shoulder blade/back more or less. I tried the Minelab Pro Find - which is supposed to not interfere with the GPZ when off by disconnecting the loop to avoid inductive responses on the GPZ - with no luck. That pointer is garbage and I have to assume Minelab doesn't actually manufacture them because it's beneath their usual standards. I have a Nokta pointer that is ok but has issues and I retired it. The best pointer I have is the Garrett AT Pro Pointer, and I just bought a 2nd one since I've almost worn through the plastic on my old unit. But it will interfere with the GPZ when too close, which is frustrating. Even at shoulder height with the 17" coil I can hear it with each left swing if I leave it on my chest instead of on my back. The Garrett is about the best around when it comes to depth and sensitivity to tiny bits. But due to the interference, I only use it when I'm working bedrock, in very deep areas, or around delicate specimen type gold that I don't want to risk damage, and unclip it for normal detecting. I really wish a manufacturer would make a pinpointer that doesn't interfere with the GPZ when off because then it could mount it in more accessible places.

I was one of the first to get an 800 in the United States. I got on Bill's waiting list several months before the release. Since then I've had to replace the control unit because of a broken switch. Everything has worked well and I've found lots of good targets. Along the way I bought a pair of Avantree headphones and they work fine but I prefer the Minelabs. Today I put them on the USB charger. I've had to fiddle with several different power cords the last few months but eventually I get the red charging lights to come on and that was the same today. When I picked them and the charged 800 up the charging lights were out per normal. When I got to the beach to connect I couldn't get the 'on' tones for the headphones. They were completely dead. I've since fiddled with them and tried multiple cables that had charged them before but I can't get the 3 little red charging lights to come on. I've cleaned the mini leads with alcohol and jiggled everything but no go. Is it dead? haha I'll use the Avantree until I can get another pair of the originals. They don't need to be new.

Hi, yes Victoria 1900 six pence will be .925 silver. The British silver coins dropped to .500 in 1920 then no silver in 1947 - both dates significant as a couple years after the end of the respective World Wars and the same reason - to help pay the war debt.

A very handy tool for prospecting. Arsenic is the main indicator element in our area. To save money on assays I zap every soil sample then only send the ones away with elevated As. They are a great toy to play with, my mate and I end up zapping everything in sight. Would never eat fish again if you seen some of the hits we got on them! Another interesting one, Caterpillar wanted $8k for some head bolts, being tight arses we got the $600 after market ones. Once we zapped both the composition of them was identical!

Reset never hurts, though it may not work in this case. Still, here it is. Owners manual page 56-57: ML 80 Factory Reset Factory Reset will return the headphones to factory presets, and will unpair all paired wireless devices. 1. Turn the headphones off. 2. Press and hold the Multi-Function button for approximately 10 seconds, until the headphones beep twice and the Status LED flashes pink. 3. Release the button. The headphones will now be in pairing mode with the LED indicator flashing blue and red.

I don't argue with barber dimes.

As a diagnostic, can you plug the ML headphones into the WM08 module to see if that part works? Someone said the ML phones are same parts as the SR71 headphones so you might find some battery replacement video or instructions for those. (The new ones have a BT problem with ML but I have not followed that thread, may be OK now)

Hi Jasong Our company owns an olimpus vanta. I have also used the Nitton gold3+ too. It costs $50 000 aud + extras so it a bit out of reach of the hobby prospector. For gold exploration you need the Rhodium xray tube as the accuracy with the other tubes (tungsten or silver) is very low on Au and PGM's. And a lot of the gold areas we are chasing have mostly free gold and little of the pathfinder elements accociated with them. Although the pathfinders are always elevated near the deposit in relation to the backgound norm for the areas, they may only have a small halo and this may only be slightly elevated. This is probably due to the large amount of water we get in such a little time here with our tropical wetseason. Which can render the pathfinders of little use to the explorer up here in parts of northern Australia. But in the more arid areas they are of much greater use. Our xrf has the gold and pathfinders suite but we also got the rare earth and base metals suite's too. But each program is expensive and an added extra. A suitable xrf is an essential tool in a modern technologically advanced exploration company. We have developed 2 special ways that we prepair our samples which increase the accuracy of the scanner and allow it to accuratly detect down in the lower end of its recomended minimum ppm. Our results closely mirror our assay results since developing these methods. Which further increased the usfulness and reliability of the xrf results for field use. The scanner saves the savvy user 1000's in assays and weeks in waiting time for assays which can be a real pain if you are in a remote location, as you may have to return after good results to resample a hot area further. It is much easier to be able to make on the spot decisions on the viability of further samples and when a hot area is discovered you can concentrate your efforts on that area rather than just taking grid samples and sending them to assay. There is also another technology that is of use to the modern gold explorer it is called LIBS. LIBS as an Emerging Analytical Tool for Mineral Exploration - SciAps https://www.sciaps.com/newly-published-research-libs-as-an-emerging-analytical-tool-for-mineral-exploration/ I am are looking at ways of increasing libs usefulness in gold exploration. Its limiting factor is that it only scans a very small area which can give you inaccurate results but Im trying to addapt the same technology but from a different sector where they use it in a different way that should prove very useful when addapted to exploration.

The first one that Joe showed is great I have used mine for years when bushwalking. It was more than great for digging holes for toilet use in all ground type. The titanium is super.

I will try one of the detachable heads and walking staff for handle thanks!

Maybe the battery died? Will it turn on with an external power cord attached (I have no way to test mine like that as the battery is new). If you are going to replace it, see if uou can open it up and put in a new LiPo battery.

Thanks Popeye. After a a few hours I realize I have "a lot of learnin' to do" on beach detecting. I will be re-reading all the beach detecting posts with a little more context. My finds today look like I would have expected for first time out... clad and trash. I was lucky enough to find a '64 Rosie.. that was unexpected! I definitely need to study up on how to read the sand, and whether to hunt the wet sand or the water (waders). This beach is pretty flat, and no visible cuts today. Trying to figure out how to work the "washboard" sand, as those areas seem to be the most noticeable difference from flat, smooth areas. Just need more practice. :) had a great time today.

That's cool, I saw a similar one except it was on a forum back in 2003 or so that dealt with building coilguns and railguns and a guy posted a SEM DIY tutorial. These newer ones look like better designs, and easier. I actually have most the stuff in the SEM guide other than the HV Arduino shield, I even have that finite element analysis program they are using, it's not really needed though. I've been thinking about making videos again except not prospecting/detecting since so many people are making those nowadays. I thought it'd be fun to build amazing stuff like this that few have heard of, out of stuff laying around. My first project is going to be building a laser out of common household trash I find laying around McGuyver style (semi cheating since I've done this before out of 50% trash basically so I have a rough idea ahead of time what to look for), then I might look at a microscope. Those crystalline gold STM photos are cool. I wonder if cryptocrystalline structure pattern analysis could be used to track/match placer gold to it's lode source. I don't think anyone has ever studied that, mostly they just do elemental fingerprinting.

Silver and gold.... You can't beat that! Great hunt and a good return of good vs bad targets.

Great introduction, Jason. I was familiar with using microprobe analysis with electron microscopes to identify elements in microscopic targets such as plankton shells for research back in the 80’s, (it was basically the same as XRF, but not a very portable version), and am amazed at seeing how portable the technology has become! I don’t need a hand held XRF gun, but when those GPXRF 8000 mono coils are finally released to the public for doing lead discrimination, I will be one of the first wanting to pre-order it! 😁

Well after reading all the post I went and put my lady pants on it made me very sad hearing all how thing are and I am very mad watch out mindlab why why are we treated this way i just came me that we are just going to face it that mindlab not a metal detector company anymore they are in the exercise company they make use go out in the mountains to get a work outs swing metal dect make our buns look very nice now I am in love with mindlab my lady pants are off now and the world is great

I recommend a powerful Fiskars Army folding shovel..

That's a Nice chunk of Gold!

And here I was expecting the water main break washed out some silver and gold! You got me!!😂 Great finds nonetheless!! Keep it up!👍👍

Depending on the type of shovel you prefer, a titainum shovel is the lightest weight vs strength metal preferred by hikers! Like the high grade aluminum, it also another option! Though it may be more expensive, it is lighter and more durable than aluminum! Here are a few examples from a quick search! When I hike, I always have a walking stick for stability and defense! You could adapt one end of a walking stick to accept a shovel head when you get to your location! That way, only the shovel head will need to be on or in your pack! A couple stainless screws will secure it reliably! Good luck!👍👍

More close up photos

King, I would 'quote' you but it won't let me do that. To answer your question, I've been through lots of scoops. This one is from a guy in Van Nuys. I've been using it for over 3 years and it looks like the day I bought it. There is no give in the basket. This scoop doesn't let me get into too much trouble with a larger amount of wet sand in the scoop. I have a left shoulder strain that doesn't want to go away. This doesn't aggravate too much. I have a Lithuanian scoop (actually 2) that I can step on like a shovel but it requires a crane to lift it out of a hole. If I was digging really deep targets like the last couple of days then I'd use it more often. I have to admit there are some wet holes I don't get the target with my pull scoop. But I can't think of my really deep holes as really good value targets either. I'm sure others have different experience with good, deep targets. Mitchel

Dam Aussies wont let me in yet......... bugger all... Starting from Big Spring TX (dust storm central today) and heading west on I-20 to I-10 then thru New Mexico and im pretty sure I will be slowing down as I go thru AZ----- then either on to LA via Rand quad or sweep up thru Vegas and on to, tri-tip Luckys Cold Springs Hideout---- then take a left over the pass and on in to Porta-toilet where Sourdough Scott hangs out so i can pick up a jar of relish!!!!!---- next would be a refreshment stop in Quincy area to see a few old mates---- then on the Redding area, and over the hill to Eureka- then North to Alaska..... YOU HAVE ALL BEEN FORE-WARNED..... use your due diligence to decide if you want to be in those areas.....hahahahahaha.🤣😂🤠

Mr. VAPaul; Please wear your mask when you pass through. I'm not concerned about a virus but your mug scares my horses. keep me posted on your journey.

The last couple of days we've had a hard wind blowing in the afternoon. It is not deep energy like swells but it does stir up the bottom a bit depending upon the tide. The first trip I didn't find much but the knife and a couple of cheap rings. At least that is what I thought. These are the finds from the first day. This was the 'cheap' ring upon closer examination. This was the depth of the knife. It was right at 20 inches. These were today's finds in nearly the same area. At the beginning of the hunt was this better knife. It was open when I found it. Then the remainder of the finds. This was a cheap ring. Two day total of 3 rings and 2 knives. Mitchel

I use them direct with the Equinox. They aren’t LL, but for causal detecting they work pretty good. I don’t know if the new Apple AirPod pro’s are LL. I wouldn’t consider the AirPods as an good option for gold hunting.

So I wasn't able to find a university or lab produced x ray spectra of a Gold Basin meteorite, I was hoping I could to use as a control measurement since it's possible my XRF could be miscalibrated or not in the best mode. So, I'll wing this one and take my best guesses based on the data, and anyone with such a report can correct me later. What I did find was a report stating the University of Arizona has classified the meteorite as an L4 Stone Olivine Hypersthene Chondrite containing Olivine, Pyroxene, Kamacite, and 0.09% weight Cobalt. So, my initial guess about olivine being a likely constituent mineral was correct. Why did I immediately guess that? Because olivine is a fundamental rock forming mineral on Earth (and thus, likely in other places too), probably the most common, and I knew it had a good bit of magnesium in it. Simply put, olivine is always one of my suspects when I'm trying to ID minerals that have high magnesium, especially in cases the rocks are very, very old. Olivine (from webmineral): Magnesium 25.37 % Iron 14.57 % Fe Silicon 18.32 % Si Oxygen 41.74 % O Also, my XRF reading matches fairly close with UA's cobalt measurement, indicating these are both Gold Basin's and not some other stray meteorites in the strewn field. What I'm seeing in various reports is that the iron content of these meteorites is somewhere around 24%, which also matches fairly closely to my readings, understanding that the iron various widely millimeter by millimeter in a chondrite. The iron and nickel come from what UA is calling Kamacite, which has a very low nickel to iron ratio, which also matches what my XRF readings have shown (keeping in mind we are also pulling in Iron from the Olivine) Kamacite (from webmineral): Iron 89.54 % Fe Nickel 10.46 % Ni The aluminum is still a mystery to me. Pegmatitic materials would be unlikely on a meteorite I think. I'm not very familiar with the Pyroxenes, so I checked Wikipedia and I see the first sentence: "Pyroxenes have the general formula XY(Si,Al)2O6" So there is our aluminum constituent. Reading further the last mystery of this meteorite is solved: "...Y represents ions of smaller size, such as chromium, aluminium, iron (III), magnesium, cobalt, manganese, scandium, titanium, vanadium or even iron (II)." Wiki says the mantle of the Earth is composed of olivines and pyroxenes, so I probably should have guessed this one along with olivine to begin with, but I'm learning. Remember the strangely appearing Cr and Ti? It would be reasonable to assume it's coming from the included pyroxene minerals. Lastly, looking at melting points for Olivine and Iron, it appears to me the most likely theory for the iron enrichment in the fusion crust is simply that Olivine is melting first and ablating or even vaporizing, then later at a higher temperature the Iron melts but the heat is not enough to vaporize it so it remains. Oddly, the silicon remains too from the olivine though while the magnesium appears to vaporize. I don't know why and I don't have a guess because I suspect it has to do with chemistry and I suck at actual real chemistry. So, I know this was a lot to take in, especially for people just casually reading this. But this is the sort of information that can be really useful when using an XRF. These are the ways you can solve various mysteries, or at least how I approach doing so, and I'm wrong a lot too. These same mysteries appear daily when I prospect for terrestrial minerals, and thinking about and then solving the questions that arise can lead to some understandings of an area of interest that literally no one else on the planet has except you. That is an advantage, and a part of prospecting is finding advantages and putting them to work and turning them into discoveries. If this is the type of stuff that is useful to you when prospecting, then an XRF may be a tool that is worth every penny.

Thanks! Already went back the next day and started gridding the same area.

It is a surprisingly very strong blade made of high quality durable steel .... and the handle is made of a polymer - reinforced with fibers ..... Fiskars Army can be used as a pure digging tool after a simple turning of the blade by 90 degrees ... And a big plus is extreme compactness in the closed position ,,,

Thanks for the recommendation it looks like they have 5star reviews i think i will try one, I had a gerber given to me and it seems quite fragile.

I bet someone here has done it. Now if we had Simon ... haha

I switched from adding weight to a bungee tether attached to the arm cuff strap. It seems to pull the coil directly up the axis of the shaft as compared to attaching it to the handle. But alternatively I have a weight that can be pressed into the shaft end, but I prefer not adding weight.

You are correct mine is not silver the one that is silver is the one between the dime and the ring, bad pic.

Just starting out with an 800 and Andy's book is really helping me to understand the functions of it. I have the updated 2nd edition, which has information pertinent to the newer firmware updates. Really a good reference manual, thank you Andy!

Do what we beach hunters do! All small hand tools and pinpointers go on a spiral bungee! Than when you forget to pick it up, it follows you!😂👍👍

Reading about all you nugget hunter's exploits has infected me!! I got this from UPS two days ago, and have no memory of ordering it, or use for it here in S. Florida! Look familiar!! I guess it will become my mini beach scoop!!🤣👍👍

Lunk: congratulations on your success and perseverance, and thank you for sharing a picture of your results. It is an inspiration to all of us. I do hope to some day try my hand at the Arizona desert detecting and it is nice to know that there is still some hope.

The fact is that you sell where you can make the most profit. Africa and other emerging markets like Brazil, Mongolia, and SE Asia have little mining regulations, and lots of undiscovered gold. Think of taking a GPZ to the Sierras in 1840. Yes, that level of gold rush is happening in these areas of the world. I got to see it first hand when I worked for White's. So if it was your company, would you ship dozens of 40 foot conex containers to Africa and Brazil, where the detectors will sell for 2x retail, or send 100 units to the US for retail? It's an easy choice. Maybe even a SMART choice if making money is your goal. The US and AUS prospecting markets are crumbs compared to the rest of the world. It's a hobby, and the easy gold is gone. Compare that to Africa where you can make a living by panning with your bare hands, and nuggets in the kg range are easier to find.