Hello donq2,
As the name of the game is to pick up nuggets, I, as probably Chris is , be quite frustrated and peeved off, to discover that my metal detector had been incapable of detecting those precious little objects, that were the reason that I was there for in the first place.
It dose not have to be gold that would upset anybody. I imagine that it would apply to any type of material recovery by the use of a metal detector that I had for that purpose and in this case gold prospecting.
The need to pick up and read the desired target in a given situation is obviously crucial and to have your worst fears revealed and "confirmed" like Chris, and by the way, many others have, lets you see what inadequacies some metal detectors have. From what I remember, the concept of layer removal by mechanical means for the recovery of gold is actually an old and proven concept that was used all over the West Aussie gold fields including up at Eneaba back in 1979.
Again I am not saying that VLF CAN read any ground conditions. I am asking whether someone has tried a multi frequency vlf detector and confirmed that it is as incapable of detecting the nuggets that the other detector has not.
How would we know? We could always make a test bed in "situ" at the site to simulate the location of a nugget.
This would be done at the moment of mechanical recovery, cat d9 or whatever, after the patch of ground was identified as "hot" and impenetrable by any detector or the detector was found to be incapable.
At that point, one could then "knock" themselves out and throw all the theoretical ideas at it to find a solution.
I really wish some one might have been able to actually confirm to me if the Explorer XS has been tried by them in a similar curcumstance that Chris has found himself in. It would save me a 350 mile plus one way trip by car to find out for my self. That is about how far I am would be from Chris and his "situation" and I do not think that he is about to grant me the oportunity to find this out, personally, with the MY Explorer XS.
Anyhow have a good one.
DAVE Di