Reg......any ideas on this one ??

[Tony]

Reg...How are things ??

Do you know how well Eric's Goldscan 5 might perform (Ground Balance) on those stones I sent you earlier this year. I'm really interested to know how well it can cope on ground like that. I know that it troubles the Minelab PI's..

There hasn't been much posted on the GS5....I don't think anyone in Australia is using one currently?

Thanks and all the best,
Tony

 

[Reg]

Hi Tony,

I am fine. Thanks for asking, and BTW, thanks again for sending the rocks to me. I hope all is well with you also.

Unfortunately, as of right now, I do not own a GS 5. I would love to have one to take with me on my next trip to AZ, but too many other financial matters have gotten in the way. So, the GS 5 will simply have to wait a while. However, I have modified my old GoldScan so it is something like a GS 5 and I tested a plastic bowl full of the rocks you sent using the GS and had great results. The GS can be adjusted to totally ignore the rocks and still find gold. I know my machine is not as good as the GS 5, so I would expect the GS 5 to do the same, probably better.

Just to be sure, I will send some of the rocks to a guy who is lucky enough to have a GS 5 and lives much closer to gold hunting country and ask him to test them also, but I do expect he will have the same results.

I think Eric mentioned he tested the GS 5 using a tray filled with some of the troublesome rocks and ground from Australia and found that the detector would ignore them extremely well. Maybe he will jump in here and mention just what type of testing he did and the results he obtained.

Hope this helps.

Reg

.

 

[Tony]

Reg,

Thanks for the reply. I'm really pleased to hear the good results when testing on the pea-gravel. I know for a fact that any machine that can operate (balance) over that stuff and get targets at depth will do very well in Australia. I'm doubly curious to also know how well the iron ID performs on that material ??

Do you think that a combination of the gravel plus finer particles/soil would be harder to balance on....maybe not so regular in composition. Typically the goldfields over here do have the gravel on top with the finer dark red soil maybe a few inches below...probably the same composition as the gravel but in a pulverised (dry red clay) state.

Regards,
Tony.

 

[gatorguy]

If the red clay is of the same material and highly magnetic, what if the signal will not penetrate thru it good and just spreads across it? Don

 

[Tony]

Don,

That is a question that the likes of me cannot answer. Having said that, the stones I sent and have tested on are quite small and compact very close together. I have detected on similar ground with finer soil mixed in and it was no noisier than the small stones alone. The photo shows the stones alone.....the true goldfields in West Aust have this plus the classic red soil bedded in with it or sometimes no stones at all.

Tony.

 

[gatorguy]

Several years ago I read an interesting post by Chris Hakey on Finders forum talking about this and the problem he had detecting in or thru this mineralized red clay. His solution was to move layers of earth and then deteect and it was the start of "Blading" in OZ. His theory was that the signal was spreading across the top of these various layers of red clay, so by breaking it up by blading he would gradually go down in depth until the patch ran out. Don

 

[Tony]

Yes.....that certainly was the case. The top layer is like a hard crust and once through it, the soil is much softer and of a more regular texture and colour. The effects of desert rain and extreme heat must continually soften and then re-bake the top layer.
I think the effects on the TX field in these conditions are well known to people such as Eric Foster....just hard to know when this problem is occurring as a lot of ground doesn't always present this problem. I think Chris removed about 6" of surface material after being satisfied there were no more targets.......the result afterwards was gold nuggets popping up all over the place and good sized ones too !

Tony.

 

[Eric Foster]

for testing look very similar, except mine were scraped off the ground and are a mixture of sizes plus dust.

[attachment 8983 gravel.jpg]



Eric.

 

[Tony]

Hello there Eric,

The stones I have came from a landscaping supply yard, which explains there uniform size/shape. I think larger material is processed through a mechanical grinder to break it down somewhat. The raw material is a local product from a nearby quarry.

PS We still have several hundred billion tonnes of it so there's plenty for everyone in the detector business....

Tony.