1515Art

It was looking kind of sketchy for a while while the large complex behind my place burned like a Roman candle we packed up a bunch of stuff just in case it spread but the crews did a great job containing everything as much as possible. Buildings a total loss, but at least no news of any injuries and no damage other than smoke for us.

Anything like a patient or or other protection preventing  ml from reverse engineering the x coil and selling their own with chip?

On 6/17/2019 at 12:30 PM, Norvic said:

I suspect trying to look at this from MLs view, if they were to make a "patch lead" they`d be leaving themselves open to warranty claims for damage done to the GPZ caused by an incompatible coil. Anyone could then knock up a coil and put on the Z. It would open a whole can of worms, I know this is so with the GPXs but they may have the ability to be not damaged by an incompatible coil wheras the GPZ being the 1st of new tech (ZVT) may not have this ability and thus suffer damage. 

I don`t think we will get that peace of mind and those of us who go for the X coil should be prepared to shoulder that risk themselves, as you know I`ve gone for the X coil with my 3rd in the mail, but to me the rewards are worth this risk. That old saying comes to mind "if you take the risk be prepared to push the pram"

No doubt ML have Z2 in the pipeline and perhaps it will address the issue that we the customer want a variety of coils.

An Explainer: I spent 20 years of my working life manufacturing and selling a then niche product, the most 5 year warranty claims I had by far were caused by user misuse and were easily solved most just by telephone conversation.

Norvic, ya i hear what you are saying and being on ml's turf and a lot closer to all that beautiful Aussie gold i certainly defer to your location,  no doubt product liability is a quagmire (gigidy?) best to avoid, although... i wonder just how much risk there is considering what ive experienced with our wonderful new/old best friend in the fields (M/L) they seem to take a very liberal approach to the warranty on the 7000 i got a brand new one without any fuss after dropping cracking the case and developing a screen line on the display ive really no idea how all that goes together in the replacement but heck they were great to me and i don't know of too many complaints although no doubt there are some. So, i think they are good on standing by the zed, the old out of warranty ones not a problem(?) and i have not much of an idea what the risks are using an iffy coil as far as damage but is the hardware cost that great in comparison to the overall price? to me the 7000 at 10K ok 8K now is more like a software license and they give you the phone (GPZ) at a small cost to cover manufacturing the way they toss replacements and i think that's smart. so risk vs gain sell a ton of high priced adaptors they pretty much already have that cost next to nothing like Simon said and give the old girl a new lease on life and sell a sh*t load more and make everybody happy vs handing out a few cell phones from time to time when one of us screws up just to give everybody confidence that expensive seat license is gonna be comfy for a long time, i know i get butt hurt easy?. my point i guess i just like to see em do it and save me the trouble of hunting down a shop or doing it myself the task is within my wheel house, im just lazy.

if Minelab is not interested in selling any other aftermarket coils for our zed's then they are missing the boat not selling us overpriced security chip enabled adaptors from technology already developed so we can buy from other vendors.

4 hours ago, Jin said:

We rented a car from Europcar and around one month later got a bill for damage to the car (marks/scratches) I'm pretty thorough and had kept the original invoice that detailed damage done to the car before I hired it. The bast#rds tried charging me for damage that was done by previous people. I emailed them a copy of the invoice and that was the end of that. It just annoyed me that they wasted my time. If you look at most rental cars they have damage all over them. They never bother fixing minor damage. Guess what car rental company I walk straight past in the airport now.

I backed into a little short metal pipe sticking up out of the parking lot pavement one time in a metallic red rental car and put a big scratch in the right rear quarter panel. When returning it I stopped at cvs and bought a cheep tube of lipstick that  matched the color pretty close. Between the dirt and lipstick it passed inspection and never got a bill although if thy had looked close they would have caught it.

Australia would be the first on my list but I don’t think it’ll be my choice Africa’s not high on my list, but this situation might be unique depending on who the operation is run by, my friend couldn’t remember their company name, only the hotel they own in town so I think It’s a fairly big operation I just don’t know how open the access or if I could hunt for myself of if I could keep what I find. I told my wife if I couldn’t nugget hunt in Zambia she could go on her own but we’ll see.

I’d never venture wandering downtown LA without backup, same with the outback I’m thinking if I do go with the right group it’d be a party.

All good info for some time in the future.

Hi Paul, thanks, and I guess you are on the list now, that’s OK cause you’re not somebody until on some list or another and international gold fossicking’er has a ring to it?. She didn’t say if she was going to be getting it from Australia or Zambia although I think she was more concerned about fees coming into the United States cause when she brought the last batch of opal into the US the mine owner caused a problem using her address as his international shipping address and she got hit heavy in import taxes on unset gem stones and I think she’s trying to avoid some of the same mistakes. She didn’t say how much she was thinking of bringing in but I’d have to guess it would be more than a few ounces?

Fred, next year I might need a license if I work up the nerve to go, both places I’m nervous about for different reasons, the Australian mines because it so far into the outback as to be kind of dangerous although it would be better with a big group for support. And Africa because, well... a lot I don’t know about that.

My friend is asking what the restrictions are bringing gold nuggets into the United States from a foreign country? She also wants to know what the taxes might be or if there is a broker fee or any special license? I have no idea and only wish it was something I knew from experience but my nuggets wouldn’t draw much notice, however looking online I don’t see anything that would be an issue other than possibly normal currency limits and taxes although I’ve no idea how an exact value would be placed on something like natural unrefined gold, or are nuggets treated similar to loose and/or unpolished gem stones?

I was checking and the internet says Zambia is one of the largest exporters of copper and there are videos both good and bad and articles about Chinese mining in Africa a lot of it violates environmental and labor laws. There is also a Chinese company working with the Zambia government the little I looked at was reporting Zambian minister’s praise for their sticking around while the price of copper was dropping worldwide, I hope the company I’m being told about is a legal company and doing positive things there. The story trickles to me in bits and pieces and between my being new at this and general lack of knowledge on mining and not understanding Chinese language enough to be useful in conversation beyond asking for something like a glass of ice water (side note - it’s always hard to get a glass of cold water in China, they think drinking cold water is unhealthy) so sometimes i miss a thing or three here and there as the conversations always drift off from English to Chinese usually until I’m asked a question it goes back and forth. 

I’m wondering exactly how they are mining in the videos I watched they show heavy equipment and open pit mines in some of the really large operations, I wonder if nugget detecting is possible in that environment/geology? Truth is I’ve more questions than answers and find it hard to imagine what this operation is all about I’m curious to find out what mining company this is I didn’t think to ask the name of the group at the time over my general apprehension about long miserable air travel and unknown dangers and sadly communication is one of my weaker skills so my apologies if this is confusing as I’m still slightly confused as well not knowing much about this yet.

The Zambia operation is gold and copper my friend says they are selling the copper to Canada, the gold is under different restrictions and I’m not sure if it can be exported? They also have a large gem mining operation recovering amethyst, opal and emerald my friend says they employ a few hundred workers, although seeing some of the mining done off in the jungle on television hundreds of workers doesn’t sound unusually large. She says it’s safe there and they haven’t had any trouble, also it’s an easy 10 hour drive from the airport to the mines and access is easy. Now my wife and our friend are planning a trip for next year... following year Australia, we’ll see.

Oh, and hunting, I’m not much of a hunter but the have a hunting reserve of some sort, although I doubt I be much interested it killing anything.

Not very much I can add to this story,  the owner of this gold mine/claim whatever is Chinese and I can narrow the location down to someplace in Zambia, should be easy to find from the amount of gold they are picking up I think you can see nuggets by simply flying over the area in a small airplane. The 8kg a one month total averaging 5kg to 8kg each month. Be pretty fun to go swing the zed over there although I’ve no idea the politics or dangers still fun to dream anyway. A different guy the owner of the Opal/gold mine in Australia is a gem dealer originally from China now living in Australia and his mine might come up for sale, I can only guess he is tired/bored with it and the difficulty in getting there. The gold they recovered was a bi-product of the Opal miming so the Opal mine could be playing out and may have something to do with the sale also he doesn’t really sound interested in recovering the gold???? Guess they have enough money the difficulty of getting the gold out isn’t worth the trouble is the way it’s sounding. That being the case if the stars line up and I know I’m dreaming a little here but, I might be able to get permission sometime in the future as long as he owns it. I can’t even imagine the logistics of a hunt something like that and the odds of pulling it off are to remote to think of much now.

My friend with the connection to the gold and opal mine owner in Australia just sent us some pictures she got from another friend with a mining operation someplace in Africa, The 8kg of gold from this location tests out at over 98% purity. Our friend is visiting us on Tuesday and I hope to learn a little bit more about the details, enjoy!

Zortan, there’s a lot to explore out there be careful and prepared it’s a lot of fun exploring, take chances and the fun can end quickly I carry sat com with me and plenty of gear although many roads are 2wd when the conditions are dry, stay out if it’s wet!

this google earth KMZ file is a fun guide and will give you some interesting places to look at along with some information on the area and roads.

http://www.forgottennevada.org/sites/newmap.html?mid=zXc1EpOap-5U.kejh8GxmneDQ

good luck, have fun and be safe

Mitchel, I think you’ve found gold already so many friends and supporters cheering you on in the wonderful land of Oz. I wish I could offer some small clue but lost I’d be And site seeing I’d be doing probably more than you are I’m sure. Anyway great thread and I’m excited to see that first nugget and then all the others. There’s a lot of positive energy focused in your direction best of luck.

12 hours ago, mn90403 said:

Great thread that expands the eyes and the brain!

Mitchel

Thanks Mitchel, Just a preview of your future gonna be some big nuggies with your name on them waiting for you?!

7 hours ago, Nevada Brian said:

The gold is fantastic, but the boulder opal is absolutely beautiful.  I would be interested in a smaller piece ?

Thanks for sharing,

Brian.

Brain I asked about the wholesale price on the little piece pictured with the keys and for some pictures of other smaller stuff and she sent over some pictures of stones that look really expensive and some tiny pieces that are cut for stringing and no price info so I’ll just post these cause they are beautiful,to look at and when I get an update I’ll add the info to the post. Some really colorful rocks coming from this mine.

43 minutes ago, Nevada Brian said:

The gold is fantastic, but the boulder opal is absolutely beautiful.  I would be interested in a smaller piece ?

Thanks for sharing,

Brian.

Brian, I’ll get some pictures see If you like what she has.

43 minutes ago, jasong said:

That opal is truly amazing, like mini nebulae in a rock. Does your friend have a website where they sell what they mine? 

It’s beautiful material for sure, I don’t know yet about websites, I’ll ask and post it here if there is one. She had a bag full of little polished pieces I noticed many were already drilled with holes for stringing into jewelry, my mind was lost thinking about the yellow stuff so with the brain on yellow overload and no ability to control my arms and legs forming coherent sentences was a struggle and I wasn’t paying complete attention to the opal, but I don’t think the little pieces of polished boulder opal were very expensive? Some were in the $50 range I think, not sure if that was retail or wholesale. The big chunk in the picture was marked 45,000. In RMB that puts it retail around $6,700. And wholesale somewhere around $4k, next time over she’s going to bring the really good stuff for us to see I’m not sure yet what that’ll be but I’m guessing something nice. If you want any of this let me know I’ll see what she can do.

We had a friend come by the studio with some opal samples she brought back from a friend of hers who has an opal mine in Australia. The pieces she brought this time over to the studio were small samples of Boulder opal. The mine is a 3 day drive from Melbourne and over 200k of that drive is off road into the bush a very difficult and somewhat risky drive she says requiring careful preperation and notice to the locals to come looking for you if you fail to come back out is also a good idea.

This is a chunk of the local boulder opal,

The next question on my mind was is there any gold????? I’m thinking Australia, minerals and gee I wonder and if so, is the owner finding any gold? She didn’t know and sent him a message asking because a friend was interested to know, he’s going to be visiting the US later this month and I invited them both back for a visit when he is here if they have time I’d love to learn more about his adventures. Anyway, my friend sent over some plctures I think might be of interest, seems there is a few nuggets to be found here and there along with the other goodies in the ground.

On 4/11/2019 at 1:47 PM, gambler said:

I meant that in a nice way too. If you don't have your sluice dumping back into the river, I don't think anyone would bother you. I've done it right on 49 at a roadside claim several times. officials don't even slow down, they can see me from the road, and I see them.

No worries here? all’s good this is happy land and I get it completely. I had a funny experience the one time I ran my Keene set-up on an AMRA claim and looked up from loading gravel into my hopper to see a sheriffs officer standing there watching me way back off up a long dirt road. Luckily Shannon had things worked out there and he just wanted to know how I was doing, the experience did rattle my chains a little.

I like it, that looks like a lot of fun nice job.

23 hours ago, gambler said:

for petes sake just use your keene highbanker. I do.

Ha, yep that would be best I guess it’s just that I was having fun trying ? and at least my 12v volt recirculating set-up will work good for what I need I think. Most times I drag a bunch of river stuff out hunting and  wind up spending all my time swinging the zed and never do any panning or sluicing, this year I might change things up a little. 

Jarod, thanks and what size intake and discharge did you use and did you use a 4 to 1 for the jet diameter. I considered putting pumps in series and using a bilge pump with a live well pump like you suggested but instead trusted the utility pumps with a rated useful lift 3 times that of the bilge pump would be better unfortunately I didn’t get that performance difference. 3 1000gph pumps I’m guessing is someplace around 12amp hrs drain of your batteries? That’s another place I should have gotten more from my pumps the 1/4hp 12v pump pulls 13amps and the supposed big pump I paid $225 for is I suspect a Chinese knock off because it’s rated to draw 20amps but instead put less drain on my battery that the 13amp pump? Unless the difference is because the rule brand (?) is really somehow more efficient? Cool your set-up is working good with two smaller pumps rumnning like that, I thought about running both my big pumps in series but with my current battery I would be lucky to get 45 minutes run time and not worth the trouble dragging everything around. I’ve need to test my nozzle on the gas pump and see if it’s any good in the first place I guess? What are you feeding material into?

clark