GotAU?

I see some fusion crust on that thing, is this a...

Welcome home! 🙂 I hope we can do a meetup sometime up at one of those club claims in the El Paso’s, and would love to see how you handle that GB2. I chickened out and went with a GM, but am curious to see how they work. It would be interesting to see the differences between what they can detect, also!

Since its Australian designed, why not the SDC7768? (AU$) Never understood why some think Minelab has been naming these close to whatever the US cost is... I think you’re right though, maybe a SDC, what does that stand for anyway?

Steve, you and I should get one of these remote control GPX 6000AT’s for our gimpy days, my knees and your hip will appreciate the break from walking! 🤣 https://www.ebay.com/itm/X4-Rover-Remote-Control-Metal-Detector-/372665708578?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286

As mentioned, getting training from a dealer is the best way to go. It is offered by several well-known and capable dealers including Gerry’s detectors in Idaho, and Rob’s detectors, Chris at Arizona Outback and Bill at Nugget Shooter in Arizona. Definitely go for training which they offer for free with purchase of many of their detectors, or at least go to one of their paid classes if you buy elsewhere and don’t have a good source for training with it.

I have one request if possible from anyone testing in the field, a VLF comparison like a Nox 800 small coil or GM for smalls on shallow soil?

And apparently, it doesnt matter if the switch or button is not pushed, the unit self-activated in their testing.

Thank you for the personal insight of the GPX 6000, JP. I would love to see a comparison between the GPX 6000 and a Gold Monster 1000. It sounds like they would be comparable on the surface, but your images of the holes you’ve dug for those fly chits look well beyond what a GM can sense... So at least for shallow areas, or even deeper ones with a little raking, will there be that much of a difference?

That’s pretty interesting you started hand stitching it so early, so many other people followed you afterwards. There’s a couple really good free online stitching and 3D point cloud building programs that are pretty good and on par with some of the professional level ones like https://www.opendronemap.org/ and https://hivemapper.com hivemapper has a online community map database where they accept imagery from the public and are building a larger map from it, if people are flying over Rye Patch or some of the other wide open areas contributed to it, eventually there could be a complete 3-D map made of those locations. As for putting together point clouds and 3-D Maps, I use Agisoft, but it’s rather expensive and really needs a system with a GPU to run well. Most of the programs have pretty good trial offers to run if you want to make a few maps.

For those of you that carry a PLB or EPIRB, I’m not sure which Minelab or PLB and EPIRB models are affected, but there’s an interesting discussion and a Minlelab advisory about accidental activations due to a PLB sitting too close or touching an active coil. Just something to look out for if you carry one when you’re out and about. They recommend keeping it further away than 10 cm from a active coil. https://www.prospectingaustralia.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?id=35628

Besides using a hacked firmware update to beat the 500m limit, there’s another way you can do it but it’s unlikely unless you have a legitimate reason. DJ I can unlock it remotely, apparently: https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=196674&mobile=2 🤔 What if you started the drone up in a barometric chamber type box or could cover the barometer port and give it a slight vacuum before it took off, would that fake it into thinking it actually took off at a higher altitude? It would be nice to not have to worry about the 500 m limit even if you are climbing above a 1600’ “hill” 🙂

Personally I wouldn’t use any of the hack programs, they’ve been known to be unstable and some have lost drones with them. When flying in the US, and some other countries, one good thing is you are allowed to fly it 400’ directly above the terrain it is above or next to, thus you can be in a valley below a peak that’s 5000’ above you and still be allowed to fly 5400’ above your head as long as the drone is within 400’ of the summit or the side of the mountain. I find this rule actually allows me to fly it a very hilly area with terrain over 400 feet above me without any issues. On a Mavic 2 pro, you just have to accept the elevation limit warning if you’re going above 400 feet, no need to hack it- it will let you go as high as 500 m above you. One thing to watch for though is you can’t see what’s on the other side of a hill or ridge if you are below it, and sometimes aircraft like to fly close to them, so being able to see what’s around on both sides is important!

You’re right, I wrote that poorly and meant high energy cosmic rays. But interestingly, gamma rays can cause photodisintegration of an atomic nucleus, causing it to lose neutrons and protons, just like cosmic rays can, forming radioactive isotopes. It’s a process that happens even on Earth during thunderstorms.

Radioactive? Although Mars doesn’t have a magnetosphere to shield it from radiation hitting it from the sun and from space, the gamma waves and UV radiation hitting Mars’ surface wouldn't create a significant number of radioisotopes in the soil enough to make it radioactive, at least not a significant amount. It would take a lot higher energy in order to have that happen. The UV and gamma waves hitting the soil would only break apart complex molecules that are exposed to it, but it would not change the atoms of those molecules themselves.

Quick one-handed grab, tip it to the side and it will automatically shut down the rotors instead of trying to pull away.

Those calcium sulfate veins were deposited by subsurface fluids moving through bedrock a long time ago, they had to have been exposed by a lot of erosion to be ip on the surface like that too. Although Mars does not have flowing water now, there were many ancient rivers there once and a lot of fluvial erosion undoubtedly exposed a lot of deep formations. The chances of finding large gold deposits there must be pretty good!

A friend of mine who is a bat biologist uses a drone to look for open adits to find potential bat habitat, and I just recently used mine to see the extent of an old drywashed area. They provide very good high resolution images of hard to access areas, and definitely can be a benefit when surveying a large area more quickly, but they won’t replace boots on the ground.

Forget the GPZ, you may need to use some discrimination for gold due to all the meteorites, and it will be getting harder to detect as it’s mostly non-ferrous metals like aluminum and titanium that we have also been trashing Mars with so far:

Those are calcium sulphate and silica veins, gold has only been found in trace amounts by Curiosity so far. Minelab tried to get NASA to put a GPX 6000 prototype on the Perseverance rover, but their marketing team couldn’t get spacesuits in time for their prospector models. 😉 https://www.nasa.gov/jpl/msl/nasas-curiosity-eyes-prominent-mineral-veins-on-mars/

@hermann Good and easy idea above, but also a more convenient and useful solution for you is to run a accessory power cord from your battery up to where you can reach it- a lot of cigarette lighter plugs have a low amp rating and cant handle radios and lithium battery chargers are not a good idea for them as the outlet turns off on some when you turn off the ignition. You’ll have a high amp accessory plug that way that you can use for an emergency radio, a higher wattage inverter and other accessories, plus a cord to charge your battery from a solar panel. Blue Seas and other marine suppliers sell waterproof in-line cigarette lighter female and male plugs with caps and twist locks, or you can use other types of waterproof power plugs for the end of that cord and your 12v detector charging cord. Also be sure to put a fuse or low amp 12v waterproof circuit breaker (also available through marine suppliers) between the +battery terminal and the + end of that cord.

Training for what, Gerry? That thing is supposed to point you to the gold, right?😉 It will be nice to hear about how that session with the 6000’s goes for you guys, looking forwards to your review from the field!

Looks like this show is over, sorry I missed it. 😔

Nice writeup! Wow, they really tore that hill up!

Goldseeker has a great book about detecting in areas like yours, it is a very good reference. Also, Steve and several others recommend raking leaves away from areas you suspect have a good potential for gold targets. Here’s a good article he wrote about using a VLF in a forested area: Be sure to fill the holes and recover your bare raked areas with leaves and duff when you are finished to hide them and also to help prevent erosion. Good luck!

It’s great you want to take your Dad out. My adult son and I are planning some times like that together, but I am the one who is going to show him how as its a more recent thing for me and he’s never been. Northern Az has some good areas 3 hours from St. George like Gold Basin, but not knowing the area will require a lot of walking to be successful I would think. If you want to really be able to find some, why not set up a tour with one of the pro’s in the area? Lunk and Rob’s, and some other pros here offer gold prospecting classes in Az. Just a thought.