MXT Gets 20 Oz. Nugget at Ganes Creek, Alaska!

[Anonymous]

Hi,
Doug Clark and his crew have been up at Ganes Creek in Alaska preparing for the coming mining season. Dave R. is up again this summer with Doug helping out around camp. Dave scored lots of nuggets at Ganes Creek with his White's MXT last summer, including one nugget weighing 7.2 ounces.
Doug mined about 1000 feet of the airstrip last summer on the camp end and it is still tore up. Northern Air Cargo (NAC) said they needed a few hundred more feet to bring in a DC-6, so they pushed 300-400 feet out on the end of the strip farthest from camp. Dave went out that night and detected the the newly smoothed area. And found a 20.1 ounce nugget in less than two hours!
Needless to say Dave is ecstatic. I got to hold the nugget today, and it is a beauty. Although it has quartz in it it is pretty solid gold, as evidenced by its considerable heft. This may end up being the largest nugget found with a metal detector in the United States this year unless someone else gets even luckier than Dave.
There are still some openings for visitors to Ganes Creek this summer. See the link below for details. I'm thinking I may have to spend another week up there myself if I'm ever going to have a chance at beating Dave for bragging rights. I was pretty proud of my 6.85 ounce nugget, also found with an MXT at Ganes creek, but it's not looking very impressive next to Dave's find!

 

[Anonymous]

Now that is a chunk of gold!!
Rich

 

[Anonymous]

Are you on cloud nine or passed out on the floor.Thats Great!!! <img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt="">

 

[Anonymous]

im going out for small gold this weekend with my mxt.what should i set it at.the ground the gold is in is not real hot.any help would be appriciated.thanks steve. Ben

 

[Anonymous]

.... but your detecting conditions are more like mine than his. MXT set up for gold: Prospecting mode, "ground" toggle switch ON (i.e. automatic ground balancing) SAT clockwise to the point where the threshold sound goes from low tone to high tone ("HyperSAT") threshold BARELY audible, gain set as high as soil conditions will allow. The 950 coil will do "ok," but if you have the 10x6 or 6x4 DD that would be better for small gold. In the autotracking mode you cannot stop the coil over the tagret, or the tracking system and SAT circuit will tune it out. When pinpointing a target, be sure to pass the coil off of the target zone by about 12 inches with each sweep. Dig ALL repeatable signals, even if they are faint. Use the highest decibel output headphones you have. Hope this helps; HH Jim

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Ben,
Yeah, what Jim said!
I actually nugget hunt with the MXT several different ways. First is for large nuggets in tailing piles. I tune up as Jim but I tend to run at lower SAT settings. I also prefer to lock the ground setting if the soil conditions allow but most tailing piles have cobbles of varying composition and so the automatic tracking tends to result in smoother performance. I use the stock coil for most tailing pile work and the 10" DD for hot ground.
In trashy areas I have used the relic mode with disc set no higher than 2 to dig non-ferrous items. I can miss some smaller gold this way but I just enjoy the mode as opposed to working trashy areas in the prospecting mode. The Shooter DD coil is best for this type of work. Low tone, ignore it, hi tone, dig it.
For small gold I would only use the Shooter DD coil in Prospecting Mode, and I will almost always lock the ground setting to avoid the fading effect produced by the automatic ground balance. But you have to do whatever the ground demands to get best performance so tuning methods vary for every area.
My best advice is that you take a small nugget with you glued to a poker chip. Bury it at the edge of detection depth. Then play with it and vary your settings to get the most distinct possible signal on the target. That will absolutely not always mean highest gain, a common mistake for beginners. You want quiet, smooth performance from the detecotor so the target stands out clearly. Too much gain can work against you in that regard.
Happy Hunting!
Steve Herschbach

 

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

Now that's what I call a GOLDEN GODDESS! Simply OUTSTANDING!

 

[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

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[Anonymous]

Steve H.:: what, if anything, does the MXT have over the GMT ... in the gold finding department only. (We dont need to talk about the multi use angle of the MXT).
Why are you hunting nuggets with the MXT instead of the GMT? Are the electronics better? What advantage does the MXT have for gold hunting?
Thanks.

 

[Anonymous]

... but since I use both for gold, perhaps the following info will help. Both the GMT and the MXT share pretty much the same prospecting circuit. The GMT, operating at 48 kHz, finds nuggets a bit smaller, and finds smaller nuggets deeper, then the MXT, which operates at 13.88 kHz. But the difference is not great. In my soil (mineralization reading 79 to 80) the GMT can find flakes as small as 1/10th grain, the MXT as small as 1/4 grain. The GMT will also find smaller nuggets deeper; a tiny test nugget that the GMT found at 2.25" deep, the MXT got to 1.75" deep. On bigger nuggets, the differences are less pronounced. Where the MXT can outperform the GMT is where the soil conditions are extreme; the lower operating frequency of the MXT handles "bad" ground a bit better. When operating the MXT where the soil mineralization is bad (soil reading over 70) the 10x6 DD coil will be a better choice then the 950. Hope this helps; HH Jim