A friend of mine sent me a Dime sized rock with Gold in it from Alaska. I just tested it.

[NH Bob]

He sent it so I could see how the XT70 reacted to it. I figured there couldn't be much Gold in it or he wouldn't be giving it away. So I put the XT in prospect mode and gave it a couple waves over the coil. Well let me tell you it picked that up loud and clear. So I tried it in All Metal like I hunt and again it was loud and clear. The digital readout was 6. Not ever having much to do with Gold as I hunt old Homesteads and farm fields of the early not so rich settlers of New England. I couldn't tell you how much Gold it would take to give that reading. I am sure its not much but the thing is the XT70 with the 7.5 DD coil pick it up no problem in either mode.

 

[B.T]

G,day Bob. The 70 is a wild thing on gold for a VLF. On the 18.75 khz DD it will pick up gold down to 1/40th of a gram. I have found a number of "specks" that size with mine.
Gotta be carefull with target Id,ing though as the ground gets more mineralised the readout for gold can range from 6 like you said up to 22 on the scale. This happened just a few days ago when a piece read 18 which I detected. I was a specie which was sitting on the surface with about 2 gs in it.
Iron mask has to be watched too. The hotter the ground the lower you set it or the iron in the ground, which we have heaps of here in Oz, will make the detector think its iron and try to blank it out. I leave mine on just 1 for the iron mask and check out anything which doesnt completly blank. Had a half g be early this week which tried to blank on just 1 and which did blnak on 5.
Cheers

 

[NH Bob]

If I were at a fresh water beach would I be better off running in prospect mode or just stay with my All Metal?