flakmagnet

I'm sure if Robin had felt better she would have scored in the Dale. She seems to find gold everywhere you guys go… Glad she's feeling better, we all know what those post-'Vegas days are like…ouchie.

The QED should be renamed the Phoenix. It has been a long, difficult, contentious journey. I am sure most people wish them well.

Great thread. Patch hunting is a whole different mind set than cleaning out an area. I seem to have a predilection for being thorough and detecting slowly with tight overlaps. I have friends who detect in exactly the opposite manner, they range out covering huge areas, moving quickly. I have tried it but have never felt comfortable. I will try it again soon.

JP, lets be clear. You always make sense.

They want a younger/fit guy and you fit the bill. The network liked you (always a must btw), and they called you back for a second interview and still decided not to use you? Interesting. Wonder what they were looking for. Did you ever ask them what they were looking for that you didn't bring to the table?

very interesting looking, thanks for sharing.

Mastering some basics is good but panning, dredging and hard rock mining do not actually give you a leg up on learning to detect well. Dry washing may help some because it depends on the same kind of geologic knowledge that detecting involves. But especially learn the geology of the gold areas you intend to work in. Then learn the detector. Other basics that are not mentioned too often are patience, the ability to concentrate, developing a perfect ground balancing routine and consistent, correct coil technique.

Tom, I hope your experience with these people is a great one. You sound like you would be a great person for them to work with and savvy too. best of luck.

Most of the people promoting these show concepts don't give a sh*t about the cast they hire. What they really are trying to come up with is the sponsors money. They siphon their profit off the top before the show even begins filming, it's in their contracts. The unscripted part is not true. We all can pretty much guess the kinds of manufactured situations they will dump their 'stars' into. The first thing to do when having any sort of contact with these folks is to hire a trustworthy and adept lawyer. A touch harsh for a reason. People unacquainted with these kinds of businesses can really wind up being taken advantage of. fwiw

I have also used David H. Fell and Co. They are honest and quick.

Chris, when you say "…Nature heals itself at an amazing rate and the areas that were worked here are nearly completely reforested. Many have become tourist attractions where people come to see what the early miners did…" I would add that these days with the planets burgeoning population demands, Nature seems to be reaching a point where it is not able to heal itself as fast as we are harming it. It goes without saying that a blight in the Peruvian jungle will never be much of a tourist attraction. Your other points are well taken…

Funny that people would come by and say they knew where it was. They're taking their time going to get it probably, I mean, why hurry right?

hmmmmm. nice.

The thing about this problem is that, yes it's nice that Minelab will send a replacement etc. but really, when you are miles out in the boonies detecting and something like this happens, it's a little late to be nice about it. How 'bout Minelab, build it strong in the first place! I love Minelab detectors, But I really do not like their quality control or their product design. And this is not some mindless reflexive whining. These badly designed aspects of Minelab detectors have been there for model after model after model.

Just to be clear; the point of posting the article in the first place was not to politicize it, or make a some sort of greenie statement. It was to inform those of us who may have no idea what is happening in other parts of our world. Here are 2 comments from a related article that IDdesertman posted which sets out a contrast in viewpoints. The discussion is three years old, so obviously nothing much has happened either way. ————————————————————— Environmental Research Dept. • 3 years ago Many countries around the world have this same problem to varying degree's. The big problem is with the large gold companies that own the concessions as they do not want to give the "illegal" miners the proper equipment to extract the gold on their concessions yet the locals have been mining on these properties for hundreds of years and it is their land, the governments are caught between a rock and a hard place. They can't stop the "illegals" from mining but they also can't ask the big gold companies to provide the locals with the proper tools to eliminate mercury use. • Reply • Share › Miro Environmental Research Dept. • 3 years ago Are yo out if your mind? Do yo have idea what you are talking about? I'm a geologist working 16 years for major mining companies here in Peru and all what you are stating in your comment is a pure crap demonstrating you have no idea what you are talking about and you probably never left US o Canada or wherever you are living. This is all about alluvial gold mining genius, none of local or overseas companies are exploiting alluvial gold in Peru at least. Poor illegal miners are hundreds years extracting gold and bad mining companies are throwing them out? What are you living in Inca empire times? These miners are simple bandits, many of them criminals, you should go to their camps and see child prostitution, modern slavery labor, environmental mess you have never seen in your life before and you are defending them? All they do with the monies they make is to drink to death, spend all monies with prostitutes and when they spent it all they will return for more gold. If you would like to see Sodoma Gomorra in your life time you are welcome in Madre de Dios and you are welcome to stay there for while.

Even the cartel's are in on it. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/andes-to-the-amazon/2016/may/01/gold-mining-in-peru-forests-razed-millions-lost-virgins-auctioned

I miss dredging…legally…those were great days. I hope we all are helping to fund the efforts of those who are fighting the stupid and ridiculous restrictions in place right now.

Oh God…does it come with backhoe lessons?

Hi all, the link is there now. And here…

This seems like an amazing possibility for prospecting off road, hard-to-get-to areas.

Happy Birthday fellow fish. Keep on showing us how it's done. Always fun to see. Best wishes for a great year ahead.

Great perseverance. A tribute to hard work. Your videos are lessons for anyone who wants to learn.

Tvanwho, I think a lot of people would attest; very few lost mine stories these days. gps changed everything…

Great prospecting Lunk. Your hard work is paying off. Keep it going.

It's been awhile since a good detecting book has been published. It's always fun to give them a read. It takes a lot of time and effort to write anything, to put together a concise metal detecting book must be quite a chore. I wish Brandon the best and will order a copy to help support his contribution to us all.