The GPZ Gold Rush

[Yukon Jack]

I agree, Steve, I think this new tech will start a rush of new treasure hunters and even get us  "rushing" out a mile further a day oftener.

As someone said, imaging is likely to improve and start another rush in the future.

As a river miner I'm not used to thinking about a place being worked out, for the river replenishes its gold every year. But I know what worked out means at the county parks shooting (and missing) for big silver after the detector clubs have swept it cleaner than Shit Hand Sanitizer. But I guess it's a reality for detectorists. There is so much untouched land in my area, should you run out patches, try the American and Yuba River areas. I think long hikes in keep many areas relatively untouched. 

[Gold Hound]

Hi Steve, guys

I cant wait for my season to start and to use the 7000.

One of the major advantages i can see is that the 7k is basically like a 5k with 3 coils on at once!

This alone is a major advantage particularly for me as a full time operator, as it will save me alot of time.

Because i will no longer have to go over my patches with 3 coils, if you have ever had to use a 8in coil to clean a vast area like i have on many occasion's it is like painting a wall with an artists brush, very slow.

This will drastically reduce my work load and increase my productivity by a large margin, this detector is definitely a game changer for me!!!!!

I cant wait for the 20in coil to be released!

If the 14 is any thing to go off the 20 will be dynamite!!

And will probably be nerly permanently attached to my 7k.

[goldquest]

On 2/24/2015 at 9:06 AM, Steve Herschbach said:

Anyone that knows the history of gold rushes knows they are very limited in duration. To clarify, I mean gold rushes as occur on the scale of the individual prospector. A person working more or less on their own with limited means.

In a classic gold rush a new discovery is made, and the prospectors "rush" to the area. Typically there are very high amounts of gold found early on as easy pickings are plentiful. Unfortunately the easy pickings are soon gone, and the prospectors wait until a new discovery is made. They once again rush to the new area, and the cycle repeats.

Some gold rushes are purely economic. A quiet gold rush occurred during the Great Depression not because new gold locations were found, but because people were desperate to find income of any sort wherever it could be found. The gold rush in the 1980s was a result of skyrocketing gold prices.

Another way a gold rush occurs is when new technology takes hold. The development of the light weight portable suction dredge created a small gold rush as prospectors took to the hills with this ability to work underwater in streams and rivers.

We are in the latter days of the electronic gold rush. It really took off in the 1980s in Australia with the development of decent VLF detectors capable of finding gold nuggets. The VLF Gold Rush. The easy surface gold depleted, but then a second wave developed with the introduction of the Minelab PI detectors in the 1990s.

The Minelab PI Rush has largely run its course. It really has only been kept alive by steadily increasing gold prices as the gold finds themselves dropped off. We can find half as much gold at $1200 as we did at $600 and still pay for beans and fuel. Gold prices have been weakening however, and the technology itself reached a dead end five years ago.

I have seen the end coming for some time. It is not just gold prices and the technology but increasing regulation and ever more difficult access issues.

The entire Electronic Gold Rush has taken place in my adult lifetime and I am likely to see the day when there are only a few diehards left at it. The good news is in my opinion we are on the eve of what may possibly be the last gasp, the last breath of fresh air. The GPZ 7000 really is a new twist on electronic prospecting that promises to give prospectors what it ultimately takes to fuel any gold rush.

Hope. We have to have new hope, a new reason to believe once again we can go out and make worthwhile finds. The GPZ will succeed simply by getting everyone to hit everything one last time, as hard as it can be hit. There is not one bit of ground I have ever detected that I would not give another go one more time, just because I have a GPZ 7000. That means I and others will find gold that until now has gone missing.

People will point out that other detectors may well have found some of the gold. That it simply got missed before and now the GPZ found it. They will in many cases be correct, but in the end I think they are missing the point. It is that renewed hope, that renewed faith that really matters, as once again prospectors hit the field in numbers with what they perceive as being the latest and greatest. And when it comes to gold rushes, perception is very much reality.

I am just thankful I was born when I was. Sometimes I think I should have been born in the 1800s, but the fact is I enjoy all the things modern life offers me. Instead, I got to participate in the 1980s Gold Rush in all its glory, both as a prospector and as a guy selling the shovels to the prospectors. Now, semi retired and living the dream as a full time prospector I have a chance to participate in what may very well be the last chapter of the electronic gold rush - The GPZ Gold Rush. I have to admit I am very happy to be in the right place and time to get in on the ground floor of one last party!

Exciting times my friends. Good luck to each and every one of you now and in the future days ahead.

Very well said Steve, I like the way you write, honestly with your vast experience, I think you should write a book about detecting and prospecting in general.

I am a lot older than you, sometime I too wish I was born in 1850, but then I like the modern things that we enjoy today too much, I am a photographer, I like the outdoor life but with comforts, I don' think I would have survived very long on a real gold rush.

Good job and Keep writing.

Cheers