Relevance of gold

HawgBonz

Junior Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2021
Messages
59
Location
Lower-most Uwharries
Hey folks, I'm researching my MD purchase and am narrowing it down. Thanks much for the help.
My question for today is on gold detecting. I've heard from a few different peeps that if ya have quartz ya need to be checking for gold. My hunt club is LOADED with quartz and was in a very volcanic area. Where I live in called "Silver Hill". Right near "Silver Valley". Don't live too far from "Gold Hill".

..But is detecting for gold in certain areas a real "thing" or pie-in-the-sky for "fringe elements"? ;) Trying to decide if it should be a factor in my purchasing decision. I'd hate ta find out there's actually some useful amount of gold to be had in my area and then later hafta upgrade to allow for more efficient hunting of it. But if it's pure "pie" I'd like to avoid the extra expense. At least till I figure out if this gig is somethin I'll continue to do.

Thanks for any useful input.. d:^)
 
Your area has a history of gold mining. The first US gold rush was in the late 1700s when gold was discovered near Concord NC.

White quartz does not always indicate gold is present. Rusted, discolored looking quartz with metallic mineral inclusions and veining is a better indication.

Have you had a chance to do some panning in your area?

Specialized gold prospecting pulse induction and VLF detectors are fairly expensive and do not work very well for coin and jewelry detecting. They can double as relic detectors in a pinch. They usually are not waterproof. One of the easiest VLFs to operate is the Minelab Gold Monster 1000. Others are the Fisher Gold Bug II, Whites GMT and the newer Whites Goldmaster 24K are also good VLF choices. Those detectors are excellent for shallower and smaller gold down to about 6" depth. Pulse Induction detectors for gold prospecting are much more expensive but will generally go deeper than VLFs in highly mineralized ground. The Minelab SDC 2300 is a good choice for smaller gold but very expensive and limited use as a relic/coin/jewelry detector. There are much more expensive PIs available from Minelab and a few other manufacturers.

If you are looking at general purpose VLF detectors that can do well on small gold nuggets in the .1 to several gram size down to around 6" depth (which is a possibility in your area) there are several good choices and those detectors are pretty good at other types of detecting besides gold prospecting. These detectors are in the $400 to $1200 range new. If you decide to do more metal detecting besides gold prospecting, they will easily pay for themselves in finds.

Minelab Equinox 800 or 600 with the 6" coil or the new Coiltek 10X5" coil. Fully waterproof and can handle moderate to high mineralization very well. Great on very small gold too. They are also outstanding coin, jewelry and relic detectors.

Nokta Makro Gold Kruzer. Fully waterproof and can handle mild to moderate mineralization. Can also do well on coin/jewelry/relics.

XP Deus and XP ORX do very well on small gold with the white high frequency coils and can handle high mineralization pretty well. Not waterproof. Fantastic relic detectors and are excellent for coins and jewelry too especially in thick iron trash.

Garrett AT Gold with the 5X8" coil can do well on gold in the .25 and larger size. Its operating frequency is too low for smaller gold. It can handle mild to moderate mineralization. Fully waterproof. Excellent for relics, coins and jewelry too.

Fisher F19/Teknetics G2+ or Bounty Hunter Time Ranger Pro have similar features and operating frequency as the Garrett AT Gold except they are not fully waterproof but the coils are. There are many coils available but for small gold a 10X5" or smaller coil works best. They are very similar to the Gold Bug DP and Gold Bug Pro but have more advanced features and are a better choice over the older Gold Bug Pro. Excellent for relics, coins and jewelry.
 
Your area has a history of gold mining. The first US gold rush was in the late 1700s when gold was discovered near Concord NC. White quartz does not always indicate gold is present. Rusted, discolored looking quartz with metallic mineral inclusions and veining is a better indication.Have you had a chance to do some panning in your area?
Thanks much for your reply, jmaclen!
Nossir, haven't ever even thought of trying to pan. Much less detect for gold. But seeing as how I'm lookin at MD's anyway I figured I'd just at least check into the feasibility of even considering it. Been lookin at Vanquish and Nox 600. The 800's just too much right now and as I understand it the 600 will do a bit of gold sniffin. Dunno about the Vanquish. The 600 is over what I'd originally planned to spend. The usual "project creep". :roll:
..The granite at the club is def mixed. Lotsa that "rusty" discoloration. Red and black veining. Some red quartz. I've seen thin little "veins" of it running across roads. Kinda hard ta remember cause I never really paid it much attention. Lotsa gold/yellow colored quartz, too.
..I'm kinda thinkin the gold is just pie or mebbe a distraction. But wanted to at least give it a lil lookin into anyways. Don't wanna find out after-the-fact that there was a different version that for only a few dollars more would have more flexibility that way or some such(it's always somethin). There's plenty of other sites to hunt on that property and I wouldn't wanna give up any ability for that over it. So it may come back to simple economics. Hehehe. d:^)
 
The Nox 600 in Park 2 or Field 2 using two tones (one tone for iron targets and one tone for everything else including gold) with all targets accepted will hit some really small gold. I have used a 600 and 800 in Arizona and Colorado with that setup and it works really well.

The Vanquish detectors are really good entry level detectors but they cannot compete with the Equinox on really small non-ferrous targets like micro jewelry and small gold nuggets. I would not use a Vanquish for gold prospecting unless the soil was really mild, the gold was larger than .5 grams and it was very shallow since they don't have a way to be manually ground balanced.

Some people on this forum will disagree for sure but to me gold nugget prospecting, especially very small gold nugget prospecting with a detector is extremely difficult depending on trash levels, mineralization and the terrain. For most gold nugget detector prospectors a good day would be to find a $20 1/2 gram nugget. Getting skunked is really easy to do on a normal day.

Honestly, at least where I live in Colorado, I can find more gold value in flakes in 2 hours of panning than I can in two hours with a detector but there is always a possibility of hitting a larger nugget and detector prospecting can be really fun.

Also, I have found over two ounces melt value of gold jewelry with my Equinox detectors.
My nugget finds are just over 1 ounce so far since getting my Equinox 800 in June of 2018.
 
Thanks much for your input!! :cool3:

I'm kinda thinkin the scenario would prolly be to just check out a quartz vein or some of the other "suspicious" type rock formations that are happened upon that may or may not be associated with gold. That's prolly about it for starters. Not really "I'm goin out lookin for gold today". Make sense?
There's also at least one creek that I've already found artifacts in just walking in and thru them. Lookin forward to hunting there.
Best I can tell a 600 with wireless phones and pinpointer, or similarly capable package from another mfg, is prolly the level I'll start with. Still not too sure on the "packages". In just about everything else they come with "less than prime" accessories and ya end up buying some proper accessories later anyways.
Non-efficient and annoying. d:^)
 
There is a 600 for sale in this forum's classifieds right now. Looks like a good deal and you might be able to negotiate if you act fast.
 
If it's the same one I saw that. But even if it is ANIB, unless I'm mistaken that's full retail.
Might as well goto a vendor and have some recourse and no possible warranty issues. d:^)


There is a 600 for sale in this forum's classifieds right now. Looks like a good deal and you might be able to negotiate if you act fast.
 
Before you buy give our sponsors a call and get the real price of the detector. Detector manufacturers set a Minimum advertise Price but dealers have the freedom to sell at a lower price.

Sponsors are listed on the upper right under List all sponsors. You might get a surprise.
 
I tried panning for gold and what a pain! It's a lot of work for not much gold. Maybe you will do better depending on location. I was at hunted out sutter's mill in CA. I did find two specs but panning is not for me.
I have done much better finding gold jewelry with a basic detector.(Ace 250)
Location, location.:yes:
 
I tried panning for gold and what a pain! It's a lot of work for not much gold. Maybe you will do better depending on location. I was at hunted out sutter's mill in CA. I did find two specs but panning is not for me.
I have done much better finding gold jewelry with a basic detector.(Ace 250)
Location, location.:yes:

Panning for gold and detecting for gold nuggets is not easy especially when there is not much or no gold to find in the area in first place.

Aside from drilling core samples, panning is by far the fastest and least expensive way to check an area for possible gold, especially in the original poster's situation. Trying to find gold in veins or in individual rocks where he is from would take awhile and the specimens would need to be analyzed, assayed.......$$$$ Panning the creeks in his area would be much simpler since mother nature will have done a lot of the hard work for him already and pans are a lot cheaper than gold prospecting detectors.
 
Panning for gold and detecting for gold nuggets is not easy especially when there is not much or no gold to find in the area in first place. Panning the creeks in his area would be much simpler since mother nature will have done a lot of the hard work for him already and pans are a lot cheaper than gold prospecting detectors.
Not disagreeing. Just lookin at it from price comparisons on amazon(just for a similar reference).

The Nox 600 basic package with wireless phones is $788.

The Nox 800 basic package with wireless phones and wireless module is $949.

I'm thinkin the 6" coil and a Garrett Carrott would round out either package nicely.
So unless I'm missing somethin, and if I am please correct me, there's really only a $161 difference in the 600 vs 800. Not even that if the wireless module counts for anything.. Seems like kinda cheap insurance for not having to worry about your choice or upgrading for a very long time.
..The folks I saw prospecting on the Tube were detecting with the 800 and then panning the area where they got signal. In all honesty it looked like a lotta sloppy, tedious work for a few little bitty flakes/nuggets. But Mebbe that's just what it is. In reality it's prolly not somethin I'll seriously pursue unless some game changing discovery is tripped over sometime to provide a catalyst. Still, for the small difference it'd be nice to piddle with it checkin out suspicious places occasionally and then getting back to "our regularly scheduled program" of sniffin around for good junk.
..I did talk to a coupla the "old family name" local guys at the hunt club meeting today and they said the old timers used to talk about gold in the local tributaries. And it has a lot of natural indicators.
..Either way, I a havin a grande time noodlin this around. I'll try not to be too bigova PITA. :D
 
If you detecting the creeks you need to know that the wireless connection doesn't work with the control unit submerged. Also, the stock Minelab wireless headphones are not water resistant. You can use them, say knee deep, but don't drop 'em in the water.
 
White quartz does not always indicate gold is present.

An exception to this exists for finely disseminated gold deposits such as the celebrated Newmont Mines Nevada Carlin mine digs. The rub is that the stuff requires an assay to determine the gold content. You can't readily see the gold. I doubt that any metal detector can pick up individual "subliminal size" gold particles or the "aggregate distribution cloud" of such particles in the rock. If one could it might be a useful field assay tool to explore for such deposits.
 
Back
Top Bottom