Advice On Metal Detecting For Gold Nuggets In Finland

[Steve Herschbach]

1 hour ago, GotAU? said:

Very good write up Steve, thank you for taking the time to share it with us!  The photos really make it also. Are you or Garrett putting it as an article for a prospecting magazine? 

I’ve seen some beautiful copper nuggets formed when glaciers pressed them from their lodes, have similar other soft metals like gold been found in Scandinavia by the same process where the nugget is not a quartz and gold specimen but has been “pressed” out like like the copper float nuggets have?

Best bet on gold and how it occurs in Finland is to read the geologic report I attached to my article.

The only place I publish articles these days are on this forum. I wrote some really great articles for the ICMJ that to this day are locked behind a “pay to see” firewall. Why pay to read in a magazine when you can read it here for free?  I did this mainly for Jyri to use in Finland for his customers, but the basic methodology applies in many locations, so I figured may as well put it out here for you all to see. Extra bang for the buck, in a manner of speaking.

[WesD]

Good tips Steve! Cant argue with the dig and detect method.  A lot of the guys in the CA Motherload caught onto that to chase gold up small drainages and dry creeks where its concentrated on bedrock. 

[Steve Herschbach]

39 minutes ago, WesD said:

Good tips Steve! Cant argue with the dig and detect method.  A lot of the guys in the CA Motherload caught onto that to chase gold up small drainages and dry creeks where its concentrated on bedrock. 

I got my start with the dig and detect thing about 15 years ago in Alaska, for much the same reasons as why it would work well in Finland. In a nutshell, very limited areas to detect, mostly in old excavations/mined areas. There is nothing like the wide open desert country where you can pretty much swing a detector anywhere. So once you hit the surface hard and clean it out, it’s either dig in, or give it up and go elsewhere. The problem being “elsewhere…. where?”

I took classes down to my old digs at Crow Creek south of Anchorage and did organized dig and detect operations, where everyone got a shot at, and went home with gold. Everyone dug and one person detected until they got a nugget, then the next person got the detector. It went around the group in a circle as long as the gold or the day lasted, and worked very well as a way to teach people how to detect gold. Nothing like hearing it and seeing it in person!

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/7084-looking-for-tips-and-info-about-crow-creek-and-hatcher-pass/?do=findComment&comment=73796

Also great for steep rubble covered tailing piles….

 

[Swegin]

23 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I’m kind of a do anything at the drop of a hat improviser so it gets me a call now and then when people get in a pinch. 

That is awesome that you are wired that way.  Sounds like you need a Garrett bug out bag.  Axiom and 24k, a few skivvies and socks.  

[mn90403]

1 hour ago, Swegin said:

Sounds like you need a Garrett bug out bag.

Have detector will travel!

Don't forget the Garrett pinpointer.  It must be the detector that has sold more units than any detector ever.

[snakejim]

On 7/16/2023 at 12:18 PM, Steve Herschbach said:

I got my start with the dig and detect thing about 15 years ago in Alaska, for much the same reasons as why it would work well in Finland. In a nutshell, very limited areas to detect, mostly in old excavations/mined areas. There is nothing like the wide open desert country where you can pretty much swing a detector anywhere. So once you hit the surface hard and clean it out, it’s either dig in, or give it up and go elsewhere. The problem being “elsewhere…. where?”

I took classes down to my old digs at Crow Creek south of Anchorage and did organized dig and detect operations, where everyone got a shot at, and went home with gold. Everyone dug and one person detected until they got a nugget, then the next person got the detector. It went around the group in a circle as long as the gold or the day lasted, and worked very well as a way to teach people how to detect gold. Nothing like hearing it and seeing it in person!

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/7084-looking-for-tips-and-info-about-crow-creek-and-hatcher-pass/?do=findComment&comment=73796

Also great for steep rubble covered tailing piles….

 

I was there at Crow Creek in June 1980. Gold Nugget detectors weren't really a thing yet.  You and your dad were working the bank as a small trickle came down from above. I think they call it puddling or something like that. You and your dad had a few small pickers to show for it.

[Steve Herschbach]

I just did a follow-up thread to this one demonstrating the results of a short "scrape and detect" with my 24K on some very small specimen gold. Check it out.

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/23607-scrape-detect-with-goldmaster-24k/

[Steve Herschbach]

0.374 gram nugget found in the last couple days with 24K by one of the prospectors I met on my trip. He also found a 0.09 gram nugget. 👍🏼

[DSMITH]

Nice article Steve, always enjoy reading your articles

[Lanny]

Such a great article to read; you've done a masterful job. A lot of crossover in the article for our shallow to bedrock gravel deposits up here in the Great White North.

I have had success in locating some good placer deposits that we then worked with trommels, etc. after locating the pay with the detectors using the dig and detect method you've outlined.

I've found some nice gold in areas of glacial blowouts from ice dams as well, but those were very shallow deposits, but they held coarse gold.

All the best, and thanks again for the great job of writing up the article as it applied to your trip to the far north,

Lanny