Roughwater

Great article Fred. Thanks for passing it on. Based on the article is sounds like there is great potential in the US for finding diamonds other than in Arkansas. Oh for whatever reason the link didn't work but I get the ICMJ so I looked it up on the on-line version of the magazine. Terry

Nice, but Too rich for my blood though.

Wow. That is one excellent example of a Megalodon sharks tooth. It still has visible serrations. The one's I have seen usually came from the ocean and the serrations are worn off at best. That's a keeper tooth for sure!

http://aurorafossilmuseum.org/post/28/megalodon.html I haven't visited here but it sounds very interesting and I plan to do so this week at which time I will add more info to this post. What interest me very much about the Museum is that they have a pit across the street that contains material donated by the Potash Corp who has a mine in the area. The material is free to explore and contains fossils including sharks teeth. Here is a exert from the website: "Some of the best examples of the fossil record near Aurora, North Carolina are from the Pleistocene, Pliocene and Miocene geologic times are put on exhibit at the Aurora Fossil Museum. One of the most diverse assemblages of marine fossils one can find in these sediments are found in the coarse material separated from the ore at the Mill Operations and donated to the Aurora Fossil Museum by PotashCorp-Aurora. You can collect your own fossils when you visit the Aurora Fossil Museum and take your own journey back in geologic time. You will truly be amazed!" Terry

I see it is a VLF machine and operates at 45Khz. Per their advertising it has auto or manual operation, comes with 2 coils, less issues with salty soil than 71Khz machines, waterproof coils and water resistant box, adjustable shaft with multiple configurations, priced about 1000 bucks and more. Sounds like it could be a real contender to the present best VLF gold machines. http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/tags/minelab gold monster/

I just got the email from Kellyco about this machine this AM and was going to post it and did but at the wrong forum. Tried to edit it all out but didn't know how. I see it's posted already anyhow, again a day late and a dollar short, maybe with inflation I'm 5 dollars short. Hope the machine is something you all can use but it seems like detectors are only allowed to move forward in incremental stages if we are lucky.

My daughter sent me the same link a few days ago. She lives in Arkansas and knows I am interested in going to the crater of the diamonds park. God willing I'll get out there this summer.

Hey Chuck hope your doing well? As to gold hunting I've been a bench warmer for a while but have my thoughts. I guess the ideal is to have best of everything going for you: The ideal set of detectors and good skill with all of them, access to good locations (location, location), dogged determination strong energy level, time spent researching and a little luck. There have been folks you have read about go out with a radio shack detector, little experience and with a huge amount of luck find the nugget of a lifetime. On the other hand one could invest in the best equipment and without the determination or skill and find little or nothing. In this day and age gold is not likely to come easy and much land has been hit hard. If you put the list of requirements in percentages one could move the numbers around some I'm sure but it might look something like this: 1. Location- 50% - If you ain't where there is gold nothing else matters! 2. Equipment 15% - You need the right tool at the location to detect and get the gold. 3. Equipment skill 10% - If the gold is detectable at all at a good location skill is the difference between success and failure. 4. Research 10% - if research gets you to gold bearing areas then your are half way there. 5. Determination 10% - even if you manage to fulfill all the other requirements for success don't guarantee it, it still will likely require a lot of determination and persistence. 6. Luck 5% - Luck is the wild card and most of us will not be dealt one on a consistent basis but it comes in handy now and then. You can play with the % above and maybe add a few more however you see fit but the more requirements you can put together the better your odds of success. Other factors can up your chances of success also such as who you know and who helped train you? Often buying from the right people can offer you professional training and tips on good locations to start your search. Few can really make it pay so I believe for most of us the investment you spend should be considered an adventure and not a profit making one at least not financially. Terry

Very cool find!

Steve. This is useful. Only problem is the guide originally had 550 pages not 150 pages. The guide goes in alphabetical order of the States so this link only gets you through Idaho. After doing a bit more research, I see that that your link above is only one of a 3 part series of links. The other 2 links can be found here: http://digitalrockhound.blogspot.com/2009/10/mineral-and-rock-collecting-locations.html Terry

Great Idea Steve! I have somewhat given up on gold detecting for various reasons even though I really enjoy it. I'm not done with detecting though and still plan to hunt for coins and rings. I also have become more interested in Gems and Minerals and look forward to continue to visit my favorite website (Detector/Prospector of course) to lean from others and share my finds. That said, I obviously will be checking out the proposed Gems and Minerals sub-forum when it comes on-line. Your Forum Steve makes a fun thing all that much better! Thank ya, Thank ya. Terry

Most of what Paul left Australia with don't interest me much except maybe the formula for Fosters beer. I don't drink a lot any more but I do like Fosters, it just takes be about a week now to drink one of the giant cans they come in. I haven't got to this site a lot lately so I haven't seen Pauls report of his trip but I hope you (Paul) found yourself ample gold. Terry

That sure sounds like a problem Chuck with coin hunting in a yard on those deeper coins. It's not like you can scrape an inch off with your boot like is often done with gold hunting. If you did if would be best to carry a roll of sod with you and a barrel of water which might be slightly inconvenient.

I've done the fire ant dance and it's very energetic but not pretty. They are pretty wicked and they were very prevalent especially in South Eastern North Carolina when I lived in Goldsboro. Half the time I have encountered them I don't realize it right away so there were a bunch of them on me before I new it. Next time carry a little of that granular fire ant poison with you in a zip lock bag. Spread a little where you found that dime and come back in a few days and you will be able to dig it up without issue. The ants that survived would have moved a short distance away so you still need to be on the look out. Glad you are enjoying the MXS and glad White's ultimately took good care of you. Sounds like a great machine. Dimes and pennies were what I had always found the most of too I think just due to their small size and value.

Chuck, I really got a chuckle out of what you wrote above. It's so funny cause what you say is so true. The ground one hunts in can be an issue all it's own too. Back in Ohio I didn't know how good I had it detecting. The ground was so mild and kids had change in their pockets to loose even way back. But out here in farm country in NC bartering was the order of the day. They carried some eggs to the store to barter for some flour or whatever. So out in the country and little towns there wasn't a lot of coins being lost like in a city. The farmhouse was a welding shop, implement repair shop and what have you. They usually built their own homes and barns at least in this area. So around the farmhouse there is a multitude of iron trash and tin. On top of that the ground has plenty of mineralization. Between the soil and generations of iron scraps, lack of many good targets etc it's a detectorist's nightmare. I haven't given up on this area but I have become well aware of the difficulty detecting here as it's a alien world compared to most test plots I see on utube.