PI for gold nuggets

[Anonymous]

HI Everyone, This question is for anyone on this forum. Have any of you used a Goldquest ss for nugget shooting? And how did it compare to the Garrett Infinium & Minelab Pi's. The reason I am asking is I will be in the fairbanks alaska region this coming year and I will be working a 200 acre claim. I will be dredging with 6" Dalke and using a trac hoe for test pits. I will be taking a whites Mxt with me and also want the best Pi unit for the money. Any help will be greatly appreciated, Thanks in advance. jimmy pearce,smithfield n.c.

 

[Anonymous]

I guess i will just stick with the dredge and Mxt detector. seems no one has any answers for me on the Pi question I asked, thanks anyway, maybe another forum would be better to ask those questions. sorry to bother ya. much gold to ya.

 

[Anonymous]

Jimmy
This sounds like a good question for Steve Herschbach on the Alaska Gold Forum. He will probably ask you exactly where in Alaska you plan to use your detector. Some areas are hot rock city which are not good for vlf's.
George

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Jimmy,
I was hoping Seeker would jump in and answer your question since he has used the GQ for nugget hunting in Alaska. Last time I heard from him, he had only found one nugget with his GQ up there, but I don't think he has spent that much time with it either.
In answer to your question, I have used a modified GQ clone for nugget hunting. Basically it is the forerunner to the GQ that has been updated to the GQ sensitivty and delay, plus a few other changes. Personally, it is my preferred detector for nugget hunting.
There has been quite a bit of discussion about what to expect with a GQ if it is used for nugget hunting. Rather than rehash all that was stated, you might want to do a search on this site for nuggethunting or GQ.
I will give you a few basics. First, the GQ is quite a decent machine when it comes to detecting the small gold nuggets. This detector doesn't have a form of ground balance, so some areas will be more difficult to hunt than others simply because of the ground response. The use of the autotune feature does help in this regard, but doesn't eliminate the problem. The GQ is light and easy to handle, so hunting for long periods doesn't wear you out as bad as with some detectors.
I suspect your MXT will do better on the real small nuggets than a PI, especially if the ground is really quiet. If the area has a lot of hotrocks as the main problem, then the GQ would be a great choice. PI's are not plagued with many of the hotrocks like a VLF.
I hope this helps.
Reg

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Reg, I appreciate the response. I respect your opinion as I have read a lot of your posts on this and other forums as well. I am leaning toward the goldquest ss anyway but just thought maybe I could get some more information on it as to how it works in low, med & hi mineralization ground. The ground I will be working would be considered moderately warm, on the mxt vdi in prosp. mode ground reads 60-70. so I am hoping that a slow low sweep will work. The other good thing I am hoping the goldquest ss will do is give me more flexibility for beach hunting because when mining season is finished in alaska I come back to north carolina and hunt the beaches. Thanks again and hope you and your's have a great new year. Much Gold to ya! survivorjp (jimmy) usnavy 1965-71

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Jimmy,
One of the real problems of trying to determine just what will happen over ground conditions is to describe the ground itself. The numbers that are normally displayed to determine the ground really do not tell the whole story.
VLF's are seriously plagued by iron oxides such as magnetite, commonly called black sand. This type of ground condition will cause a VLF to scream if the GB is off just a little. DD coils help but do not solve the problem.
PI's, on the other hand, can almost ignore such ground. If the black sand is relatively consistent, then it is quite normal for the PI to respond with almost no response at all.
Clay conditions are a different story. Normally, a VLF will not display any real dramatic response to the clay, but a PI may.
In other words, what can cause major difficulties for a VLF can cause little or no problems on a PI and visa versa.
What I have found is when hunting stream beds that are constantly "washed" (a constant flow of water) will be quiet on a PI even if there are a lot of "hotrocks". The same area will cause a lot of false signals on a VLF. It is only when clay begins to show up in a stream bed that I have experienced any significant ground signals.
My use of a DD coil on my PI greatly reduces the signals caused by the clay conditions. In most cases, the reduction is enough that little or no ground balance is needed.
I hope this helps.
Reg

 

[Anonymous]

<img src="/metal/html/tongue.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":b"> Dear Jimmy,
Saw your request for information about the gold PI detectors and the answers that you received.
First of all, I was involved with the development of the Garrett Infinium LS by working in conjunction with the Garrett Engineers and field testing in Australia.
The first point that should be taken into account, is that a standard pulse induction detector that is designed for beach work and not gold detecting will not really have a great success in the highly mineralised soils of the goldfields.
When we started testing, we looked at the beach type pulse induction detectors and looked at the capabilities of these units. Using a 5.3 gram nugget, these units would detect it on the surface of the mineralised soil, but by placing this nugget at 40mm (just under 2") they were unable to detect this nugget through the iron mineralisation soil.
Beach PI's are designed for the salt mineralisation where a gold PI is designed for the ironstone affected soil, but will equally work well at the beach.
So due to this, if working in medium to high mineralisation soils, you will need a PI that has ground cancelling capabilities. At this stage, there are only two brands of PI detectors that fit this requirement and that is the Garrett Infinium LS and the Minelab SD/GP units.
Now if you are looking at working in the water, the Garrett Infinium LS is definetely the way to go as it is fully waterproof down to a depth of 200 feet whereas the coils supplied on the Minelab units are not even waterproof so you would have to go for an after market coil that could be submerged in the water.
If you were only looking at land detecting, then I would look at both brands of detectors.
The Infinium LS and rhe Minelab SD2200D basically have the same depth capabilities wheras the GP series tend to have more sensitivity to very small nuggets, but still not as small as a VLF gold detector will have. VLF detectors will always have better response to small gold than PI detectors and I have seen gold that PI's wont pick up, but a good VLF gold detector will.
I like what the Garrett Infinium has to offer and it is also very well priced. The two types of discrimination work well on the Infinium, especially when they are used in conjuction with each other and also they work at depth wheras the SD/GP discrimination is only surface discrimination and on larger targets only.
So there you have it. I would still take the VLF unit with you and in regards to a PI, this decission will have to be made by you.
Hoping you have a great New Year.
Regards,
Phil <img src="/metal/html/tongue.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":b"> <img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=""> <img src="/metal/html/wink.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt="">