dig4gold

For me the use of a drone is for searching for old timer workings in steep rugged country for gold detecting purposes. That saves me the effort of walking into such terrain only to find I wasted my time & energy if nothing is there. I often just do a Google Earth fly over but a drone you have control over for closer, clearer footage pin pointing spots & also access into those spots. You just need to be careful you don't drop the drone out of sight down a gully because if you cant have line of sight of the drone then the drone cant see you & you can/will lose signal & could be bye bye drone. Crash & burn. Return to base may kick in & save you, or not. D4G

Technology seems to be heading for smaller gold but deeper down. Is there enough small gold to make it pay for those chasing the money from gold found? Maybe. Bit of a catch 22. You got to be in the game to find out. There are some GPX 6000 users that think so. Involves a lot more effort & digging though. D4G

True that, good point. D4G

Minelab is more concerned with how they can mine the miners to suck more money out of them. D4G

Because at the end of the day when chasing gold the only way to know for sure what the signal really is, is to dig it regardless of what numbers are telling you. That means digging all signals, like it has been for decades. D4G

Maybe. But is it up there in the same league with the GPX 6000 in finding gold? If finding gold is the game. D4G

The gold is mostly gone now. But as we know, no one gets all the gold so there will still be rats & mice getting caught which will keep the punters keep on playing the game. Albeit in declining numbers if making money from gold found is the goal. D4G

The GPX 6000 should not have been called a GPX as it is nothing like a GPX. Doesn't even take the same coils. The 6000 has the 17" coil. That is a fairly large coil. Feels even larger on the 6000 making it out of balance & nose heavy. I don't think technology has hit a wall but more likely that worthwhile detectable gold has hit a wall. D4G

Here are a couple of you tube footages that may give you an idea. D4G

I wish you the best of luck. D4G

Here is his latest upload. Enjoy. D4G

Interesting. Maybe Steve Graf is there cleaning it out. Here is his latest upload. D4G

Another side of the equation is how long the gold remains to be there & that is the unknown. A mine doesn't close down because it has made too much money but because the gold runs out or it costs too much to get it out. Drill testing can give very good indications of values & longertivity of the deposit. Gold here in New Zealand has broken through the NZ$ 3,500 an ounce. First time in history. Our "new" government is pro mining so the West Coast Miners are rubbing there hands together. Good times. D4G

Hi guys. I came across this & thought it may be of interest & be good info if you are considering a detecting trip down under. D4G

I too look forward to it. I know it will be as gem, well gold actually. 😊 Thanks too Lanny for your email. I will be in touch. D4G (Greg)

Just a shame it is broken & only half the coin. @phrunt. Didn't you find a ring in some old workings with ivory in it that you thought may have been Chinese? D4G

I'm absolutely with you there Steve. Hardly ever use a pick holder. If swinging the Zed I have used the minelab harness & just tuck the pick off my hip through the harness waist belt. It holds the pick up fairly high & it isn't dangling around my legs which at times has caused me to trip on it getting in-between my legs. D4G

It is pretty easy to take photos or footage & not give locations away. Some might recognise a general area, province or state due to the lay of the land or types of bush/growth but not an exact spot. Those that do are, well, asking for trouble. So point taken Norvic with your concerns. They are real & have been happening for years. It was great to follow the Gold Hounds but they stopped showing there stuff due to people stalking them in trying to find/follow to their locations. Not to mention the amount of lost time from actually doing what they needed to do in finding gold by doing their videoing & editing etc. After all, it was their living & the time is precoius when out there. D4G

@Norvic How come you missed that gold? 🙄 Mind you, so did Dale & Trent from the Gold Hounds, & JP. Your back yard is a BIG back yard though. D4G

Woody can prattle on a bit. I reckon he should have taken the Algerforce approach & just hit the market with it when it is all done & up & running taking the world by surprise. Cats out of the bag now. D4G

A Kiwi boy in far north Queensland. D4G

Overburden is the bane of us detectorists, all gold mining for that matter. That sucker would make short work of getting down to some detectable ground/bedrock. D4G

Why sadly? Isn't the name of the game to be as efficient as you can & hopefully leave very little to nothing behind. After all, it was their livelihood. The Chinese were very methodical & thorough & worked together very efficiently & made claims left behind by European miners pay. That is why they were a bit/lot despised. Talking of Chinese miners in NZ it Looks like your mate put this link up on our local forum the other day. https://community.paydirt.co.nz/t/history-of-chinese-gold-miners-in-otago/8270 D4G

Good for you Lanny. I have read many of your adventures on one or two forums over the years. You are very gifted with the pen, or should I say keyboard. All the best of luck to you. D4G

Hi Phrunt. Any chance you could wave your E1500 over that little sucker & tell us how it does, maybe your gold monster, GB2 & Garrett 24K too? Cheers. Any gold is better than no gold & even a tiny bit like that .009 piece is still gold & you can go home & say you found a piece of gold. Does size matter? My girlfriend says "It's not the size that matters, but the way you use it."😂 D4G