mn90403

Now that you are in OZ ... http://resourceworld.com/index.php/novo-resources-bulk-sample-returns-10-4-grams-gold-tonne/

Instead it was a Gucci! My first one. A couple of days ago we had some low tides and it was time to get out. When I say get out I mean at 4 AM with my light on my cap. There are a few beaches you have to get to when the tide is low and BEFORE someone else. This was one of those mornings. When I get there I head directly to the wet sand and the spots where I've found stuff before. This pattern I repeated the other morning and I got a strong target on the Nox about 2 minutes in to the hunt. I was in Beach 1 just about standard settings. When I heard the target it sounded like a quarter (30) and then a little bit higher (31,32). The only targets I have heard this high have been the miniature cars and cell phones. This had to be a cell phone. I have a big scoop with an 8" diameter and the first couple of half scoops didn't get it. It was still chirping at me. I was now down 8" and it was one of those broad signals. Got'a be a cell phone. I had to set the Nox down and dig with two hands and I flipped out the dirt and the target was out of the hole but no cell phone. I pushed the mud around with my boot and I saw silver! This is the heaviest silver ring I've found so far. It is a Gucci Bamboo that weighs 18.4 grams at 10-12 inches and I think it could have seen it deeper. Mitchel

Paul, I know you have plans but here are some ideas for the Western Trip! (It turns out to be a good read for the rest of us also.) https://thewest.com.au/opinion/inside-cover/five-days-following-the-footsteps-of-paddy-hannan-through-was-goldfields-ng-b88847047z Mitchel

I have now given thought to my measurements and weighed again with a fixed scale position. This took out the motion of holding and I now have a more accurate estimate. The dry weight is 691g. The water weight it 431g. This makes the estimated gold 5.1g without changing the sg for quartz. Who knows? Mitchel

True!

Elf, It IS interesting because it is a mixed 'result' as they say. I have just made my weight measures and it leaves me with some things still to figure out. I am using this: http://www.desert-gold-diggers.org/gold/specgrav.htm#Calc When I put in my dry weight (695g) and my suspended in water weight (430g) it come up with a -8.48g of gold! Something is not 'right' because we can see gold there. If the specific gravity of the quartz is changed to 2.60 in the formula then you get +7.19g of gold. So the quartz from this area (The Dale District) may have a value between 2.60-2.65. This one is too close to call so ... Am I missing something? Mitchel

I just read that story and now I see it here! One part of the story I read said that the estimate is between 4-17 billion. That is quite a range. How much is it going to take to get all of it to the surface? Mitchel

Lunk always makes a plate and sticks it on the bottom of his coils! He doesn't have time to wait for others to make one for him.

Thursday I went out to a Southern California gold location with a couple of friends. The intention was to prospect hard all day but things didn't work out quite that way. We did get a chance to hunt on an old patch that had raked hills and then another area where a quartz stringer had been chipped at many years ago. My friends attacked the raked hills which they thought had been detected with GB2s. They had 7000s. (I had my 7000 with me but I wanted to swing something different!) I started out on some of the same little hills but quickly tired of nothing good and I headed for some areas that had not been raked. We spent about an hour at this location and we were about to leave when I got a signal on my 800. It was a 1. I did a bit of a foot scrape and pick scrape and it was still there. This time it was not foil. I scrapped a bit more and was encouraged by its depth of 4 inches. I came upon a piece of quartz and got it out of the way and the signal was gone. I swung and the signal was in the quartz but the rock was dirty. I put it in my pouch with the other trash. It weighs about a pound and a half. We left. About 2 hours later we stopped at another place to explore and I had time to pour some bottled tea on the quartz. I looked and tested and my friend had a loop and he said it is definitely gold. I looked and sure enough it is. I haven't been able to do a specific gravity test on it yet but I don't think there is much gold. Upon further testing the 7000 can see it from about 15 inches above on an air test and the 800 can see it about 8 inches. There are a couple of more dense masses in it somewhere but I'm just glad the 800 could see it. I was in Gold 1. Mitchel

Nuke, Tell us what you find. You can cover the cost of your trip and entry with two days on the beach. Mitchel

Yes, I know the finder and I have not asked her what I can say about it so just go there for now. They don't come to this forum or at least not very often. Mitchel

My personal choice to reduce noise in the very worst places I have has been to go down to 15 when under a pier with rides on it but even worse than that has been a road area with a cable or something. I do know it takes away from the finds a bit because I have found myself some minutes later away from the EMI wondering why I can't hear some of the trash and I remember I am at 15 or 17 and not at 22! Nuk thinks/knows he is missing targets at that level of sensitivity and will use another detector in that area. I think a 'test' is in order and actually find out if you can quiet the Nox at any setting and then compare how it finds to the other detector. If you can't see a target the other machine finds then case closed. But then we return to confidence ... Sometimes it is more important than matter ... Mind over matter. Mitchel

Yesterday under the power lines I had my cell phone with me. These are the large transmission lines that keep the grid working. I think now about my area of the beach I have a problem there are also large pumps running some of the time but all of that does not matter. What matters is that it doesn't work THERE and another machine can ignore that EMI and do better. I don't have an issue with my one location with EMI and the 3030. The Minelab engineers should respond to some of this.

Well done again. I have one area up from the beach near a road where there is some buried cable. I can't get near that place if people are there or not. Yesterday I was under massive power lines in the mountains and I could still run the Nox at 22. Mitchel

Well, I heard it said that if you would have gone to Ganes Creek with a 5000 then it would have been 'too much' detector. I was just wondering if you were going through tailings from a dredge (large nuggets are kicked out) that has a lot of trash is the Nox part of a recipe that will work better than another detector or even a 7000?

Ok, that is the question. If you were going through the tailings with a Nox is it still a matter of chance or does it have an advantage? (The nugget in the picture came from a dredge tailing pile.)

Let me ask Steve this question: What would an 800 have found for you in Alaska at the time you were using your GB2?

Steve, I mean found with the Equinox 800. I'm not able to link to post the picture now ... maybe later. The reason I put it up is to make people think out of the box on where to use the 800. Mitchel

I just saw a picture of a gold nugget found with an 800 that is a specimen greater than 15 ounces and it has more than 5 ounces. (I know exact numbers but it is not my nugget.) This is the largest nugget I've heard about so far. Has anyone heard of a larger nugget? Mitchel

I'm glad that has been settled. I'll make sure Curtis sees them and pets them a bit.

I think he must release them in Santa Monica at a beach so they can swim. He just needs to let me know the release date and time so I can confirm to all of you how many and the size. I'll take good pictures.

Thanks Lunk. Will Gerry be getting you a 6" for your training sessions? Mitchel

You will 'miss' the discrimination but if you are on gold it is a matter of what 'size' the nuggets are. I think the 6"" will be a limited application coil for me just like the 19" for the 7000. Mitchel

That was my thought for mine. I notice the wobble only at the end of some swings. If I have good coil control I can avoid the wobble but some tape will probably do it. Mitchel

Nice hunt! I like the beaches too. When I looked at your post I thought you were sending us pictures of a February 5, 2018 hunt. We may have a few more differences in language and target responses but I think we'll manage. How is the 'amount' for you? I'd be very happy if I found 5 lbs on a hunt. When you say you can't make the Nox work on top of the beaches because of high EMI let me tell you what I do. First of all we have a sensitivity on the Nox that goes up to 25 and we think we have to stay above 20 all the time. Why didn't Minelab just forget about 1-18? When could you ever want to be that low? I use low sensitivity in two cases (all of us need to explore and use them more). One is for very high trash ... I don't need to light everything up to get the good things out of it so to speak. Sometimes less sensitivity is better on finding good targets. The second place I lower the sensitivity is for EMI. (I do this after I noise cancel and go out of auto.) I have a couple of places where the standard settings of the Nox simply will not work. I didn't have this problem with a CTX or an SE Pro ... what is WRONG with the Nox that it can't handle the EMI? I've learned that EMI can be handled if I turn down the sensitivity until it is stable. What I have also learned is that most of my good targets are still 'visible' to the Nox at much lower sensitivity if I get over the target. I lose some of the 'side band' or peripheral sensitivity because of the lower sensitivity and it being a DD but it still works and works good. Good luck tomorrow. Mitchel