Aureous

I knew a few similar people Geof.... I told a bloke whos Wife left him to go to WA and start fresh. He'd already had some experience detecting (not much, maybe 50 bits of gold to his name) but he sold the house (the Ex Wife got half) and he bought a good 4x4, a new Garrett A2B Groundhog, some camping gear and told him to see Cal Mason at Redcastle and camp with him for a few weeks to learn the basics of WA. Saw him 3 years later (1989 I think) in Kalgoorlie.... a new house (with new woman attached), new car, 3x mining leases and a million bucks in the bank. This guy Graham went from zero to hero in 18 months. Slept on the ground, ate from a can and did 12-18 hour days chasing new patches. I can think of another dozen guys who were 1,000oz heros during the 80's. Bob Sargeant, Terry Mervin, Dan Callaghan, Colin Hamill, Pommy Dave from Leonora.....plus many more. All passed away now....If only a career and women didn't get in the way, I coulda joined em lol.

Don, they've been working on the prototype GPZ8 since the 2019/20 financial year. No sign of it being released this upcoming financial year (according to Codan investor reports) so I'm anticipating that news of it will arrive in 2023 or maybe a sniff of it later this year.

Jeeez, 600 tonnes is a toll treatment job, unless ya spent the big $$ to build a decent ball mill setup? Hope the grades are as good as those species ya got 👍 Hope the Meeka locals appreciate the hard yards ya done with their comms too. Nice work!

Hope Kris helped point you guys in the right direction of the reef shedding all that gold! Very gracious of yas to let her detect there and not split the proceeds.....more generous than a lotta tenement holders there thats fer sure 👍 Not many Youtube videos from you recently Trent? Been too busy digging up all that gold eh? 😉

For those that dont know....this guy and Brother have been pro prospectors in WA since the mid 80's when they left New Orleans on a whim and a prayer. One Brother is now concentrating on Lease pegging/sales/speculation because he has a family to support, but this one has stuck to patch hunting and near-surface reef mining. Lets just say they have become 'Legendary' 😉

Yes Ive had two 9" Elites both do the same thing now....cable sensitivity at the lower end. They degrade to the point of being unusable and being thrown away. But Ive had other Coiltek coils that have lasted for decades! I had a Joey mono that got used on 4 different GP and GPX's....had it since 2001. My pick for the X6 is yes... a smaller coil (elliptical) which should be a stacked mono so that the benefit of flat winding is still a majority. Flat ('spiral) windings are impossible in a small coil without stacking and Id love a bigger CC coil too. If Coiltek were marketing-savvy, they'd use Blue camo to match the blue X6 color. We will see....

My understanding is that ML is giving both Coiltek and NF alternate opportunities on each new model for providing both coil parameters and coded chips for inclusion in them. Coiltek got the rights to the SDC, NF got the rights to the GPZ, Coiltek now has the rights to the X6 and I suspect that NF will have the rights to the new updated GPZ next year as well. NF are having issues with performance on their prototypes I hear and Rohan wants actual benefits to end users with the coils, not just options for sizes.....good on him for sticking to his guns. Im sure he'll provide something amazing when he has it down-pat. So, no....NF wont be making coils for the X6....thats all Coiltek for now.

Those tiny coils were meant as a pinpointing probe, John Kah made them himself I believe and are a stacked mono which is why they're so high (tall). They came with a switch attachment to direct the signal from the coil to the probe and vice-versa. Haven't been made since the 2200 was new I reckon 😉

Ummm. thats 32,150 Troy ounces to a tonne. You're missing a digit and the comma is in the wrong spot Geof. With all the missing data from the early days of alluvial mining, plus the extra recent production figures from Fosterville, Stawell, Maldon, Ballarat and Bendigo, we can safely assume 100M ounces of production from Victoria I reckon....

A GPS unit inbuilt would be nice....but not a 'deal breaker'. To keep costs down, don't bother. Color screen unnecessary, as long as the greyscale screen has a high value backlight so its viewable in bright daylight. A clock would be great though!!! Ext cable every time. Makes changing the coil way easier, lower cost and GPX compatible coils would fit. Coil sizes (if solely for prospecting) all elliptical. 12x8 standard, 15x10 (both flat-wound) and a small mini coil for cleanup work, the 7.5x4 that NM already make could go well if bundle wound. If its to become an optional surf detector, a neutrally buoyant coil in the 10" range would keep those guys happy. The 10ft waterproof rating is more than enough, even if it were to become a surf detector as well.

How old is the Excal II??? Is that not due for an update also?

If your importation fees are not high (Argentina customs taxes or duties) then buying a used Minelab GP or SD2200 from Australia or USA might be a better option.Huge range of cheap coils on the used market also

There IS a new GPZ coming....work on that model has been going on for at least 2 years now.

Yes, this is exactly what ML are known to do. For many years, ML used Govt subsidies to retain or expand patents which normally would have expired, like their MPS and DVT patents. Also the DOD coil was or is patented despite being a known design for over 30 years. They imagine wonderful new terms like 'ZVT' and patent it, despite it being just a fancy version of BiPolar PI tech which Eric Foster dabbled with back in the 1980's. They rightly protect what they perceive as their security in the industry and often take this concept to extremes. Its worked....how much REAL competition have they had in the prospecting PI market since 1995? Next to none. I suppose its because of this, they can expend AU$20M+ to develop the GPX6000 and ask AU$8,000 for it. Both good and bad end result. Good coz it provides us with next-level equipment to find lots more gold, but bad coz it drowns competition and keeps prices high. The one positive trade-off is that our spent $$ on Minelab equipment provides the excessive profit margins to fund the next generation of detectors. Pain for Gain lol

Another coil manufacturer experimented with stacked coil windings and a co-planar spiral-wound coil. They found these couldn't be patented because of prior designs. But that has never stopped ML from doing it anyway lol. Minelab haven't been interested in building/designing coils since the early GPX days (Commander) UNLESS there was a new detector in the wings. My guess is a new GPZ in 2023.

One extra 'addition' to the overall design, which I feel would add extra versatility and power is a frequency change option. On my modded GPX4500, this option adds SDC2300 type sensitivity with small coils (I love the 9" Elite) using the high frequency setting while still allowing terrific depth on solid nuggets. At the other end, the low frequency allows terrific depth on larger targets, using bigger coils (18" monos or larger). I'm uncertain if the QED type bias control already alters the frequency OR its a code alteration. If its code (pulse train), then BOTH bias AND frequency user control options would surely add a significant % of depth and sensitivity I'm thinking....

The pulse-train will have to be coded to suit the type of detector it ends up to be....whether multi-channel or single channel with bias. As long as the delay is under 8uS (for high sens bias or a hypothetical channel 2) or lower with a fast sampling rate to match, then it has serious potential. With current processors, the width of the train is entirely code-able to handle a lot more target size, emi, ground signal extraction, transmit voltage and heaps more. It just needs a good code written to suit the type of detector it needs to be.

Very much a case of 'lucky you' for living in NZ Simon! I see soil every day I go out detecting, that consists of black and brown iron pisolites overlying variable iron oxide encrusted clay. Nothing works manually, only tracking can keep up... the ground noise itself is constantly a nuisance addition to the threshold! Picking faint targets out of the audio mess is an art form in Oz... 😉

Sure, when I go out, its to get some exercise, breathe fresh air, avoid the Mrs and enjoy the hunt.....but without the yella metal being involved, I wouldn't waste a single second. I'd find something else to enjoy. A 14 grammer I got a few days ago reminds me why I 'do it' 😉 I'm sitting at 114 pieces so far this year.

I firmly agree with everything you said, Simon....bar the ground grab-only option. Tracking becomes supremely necessary here in Oz and was one of the main reasons the QED didn't succeed. I ditched mine within a couple weeks as did Rick Bryant and a few other successful Vic-based prospectors. It just couldn't keep up with mineralization variations and suffered a reduction in small gold detection ability because of that. A switchable option between tracking and fixed/grab is ideal I feel. The African and Australian markets would 'demand' it I reckon.

You know Ive already thrown my 'hat into the ring'. Ive been detecting for 40 years and have hundreds of ounces to my name, live on the goldfields, I have access to all ground types, varying from very mild... to ground which can be arc-welded due to the high iron content. Salty soils, high EMI....you name it. Another person who's been at this game here in Oz slightly longer than me is Reg Wilson. He's about as tough a tester as you could imagine....but will always say the facts as he sees it. Blunt as a sideways brick.....in a good way lol. Nenad Lonic (Phase Tech) is also a good option, even though he used to work for Minelab. None of us has any current allegiance to Minelab. We all just want competition back into the prospecting PI marketplace and a performance unit that provides better value. One factor needs to be addressed though, in order for a prospecting detector to succeed here in Oz, the trial detector needs to travel....at least from here in Victoria to Western Australia. So someone will need to be selected there as well. I can test in South Australia and NSW as well though. All things to consider.

Pulse delays are well below 10uS nowadays (SDC2300 and AQ) so fast sampling (thanks to superior processors) needs to match the ability of the pulse delay. Minelabs patents are the only thing getting in the way of this (MPS and MPF) to enable a new multi channel unit to be built. so hopefully at least the MPS patent is now defunct? Otherwise, the bias controlled single channel option is all we would have, but this could still be OK. In order to compete with ML and Garrett, ground balance will HAVE to be auto or optional (tracking and fixed with a grab), otherwise the vast African market will be disappointed and us Aussies will also not take the NM PI seriously....this was the reason the QED never gained mass approval. Yes, audio options need to be very sensitive with an ext speaker option.

Im sure there's a degree of 'Minelab Syndrome' creeping in there... ONLY Minelab can make a 'true' gold prospecting PI, so why bother suggesting anything? I can see that NM are a true forward-thinking and progressive company with innovation at the forefront of their future direction, same as Minelab. 'Without innovation, there is only stagnation'. Failure to recognize that, leads to the end result of Tesoro, Whites etc. So, seeing how NM want to battle ML on their own 'turf' so to speak, it bodes well for the industry and us customers. More suggestions, the merrier....it can only benefit us.

I emailed the guys at NM several weeks ago and Dilek told me that the engineers are currently still busy designing and expanding the new units capabilities so I'd imagine that any incorporation of new ideas as mentioned above is NOT beyond possibility. So thats great! They also have copies of the comments and suggestions here to work on....so keep on commenting everyone! Plus, they certainly WILL hand off field test units to trial the new machine in as many soil environments as possible. So, good news all round :-)

Think we'll be seeing Chinese knockoffs of NF Z search coils in a couple months...... 😒