HOW TO START GOLD DETECTING
by Jack Lange Goldhunter Detectors
Buy a Good Detector
Unless you have a very thin wallet, forget about buying a second-hand, outdated unit. Detector technology has increased dramatically in the last few years. If you have a bit of the treasure hunter's blood, you will surely have an enjoyable time and find gold - with patience. Buy a machine that is specifically made for finding gold nuggets, rather than just a coin and relic detector. At present, Minelab has a great detector with its Pulse Induction GPX 4500 detector (great depth) although they are very expensive (about $5,500). The latest Goldscan detectors are also Pulse Induction units, but much cheaper ($3890) Although more basic and simple to use, their depth ability is also very impressive.
The Minelab Eureka Gold or the XTerra 70 are good VLF detectors, however although they are much inferior to the SD's and GP's for most applications, but they are excellent for small veins of gold in quartz or very small nuggets in quiet ground.
The Gold Snoop Pro is a very affordable VLF detector and handles the noisy mineralised soils which are the greatest challenge of the gold fields, far better than any other VLF detector and is actually better than the Minelab GPX 4500 in this regard, and is my preferred detector for detecting high-junk areas that need a proper discriminator that the Pulse Induction machines lack. It lacks the great depth of the PI machines, of course, but especially with the optional 10” coil, it will detect deeper than other VLF machines in heavily mineralized soils. This is because , with the Terra and the Eureka gold, the sensitivity has to be turned down dramatically to be able to cope with those soils, but with the Gold Snoop Pro, the sensitivity can be left at Maximum.
Where to Go
Don't trust solely to luck, do a little research. You need to locate the gold fields that have previously produced gold nuggets. Find the old timer's diggings and start from there. If you are really fortunate, maybe you know an experienced person who can take you to a good area.
1. Tap the brains of the dealer who sells you your detector. No one will exactly pinpoint a rich spot, or they would have cleaned it out themselves. Gold-town tourist shops and detector shops usually sell books and maps of the old diggings in their area. There are often historical books on gold finds covering most states of Australia. Research at your library. Explore websites of Government mining departments.
2. Do your best to get to know the locals of a gold town or area. Don't ask too many questions, or they will clam up, but listen for the bits of info they may drop from time-to-time. Some of them will deliberately try and put you off however or they may genuinely not be aware of the potential of their own area.
3. Phone or visit or write to the nearest State Dept. of Minerals and Energy or Dept. of Mines. They will advise or provide maps and explain how you can legally detect in an area. For instance, in N.S.W at present, you don't need a fossicker's licence, but in Queensland you do. Some of the gold-bearing land will be under private lease. If you don't know whether land is under a lease, ask the local miners, graziers, etc. Lease poles always mark the boundaries of leases. If it is leased, some leaseholders may give you permission. Crown land is not uncommon and is an open door with no hassles. Also many farmers will give you permission to detect on their property, so a candid honest approach is best.
4. Perhaps join your nearest prospecting club as some of their members can advise you where to go. To start with, detect areas of ground where previous prospectors have found gold. You will quickly learn the tell-tale signs of old gold diggings. Mullock heaps and uneven ground suggests previous workings. Rocks thrown out of creek beds and gullies are also indicators. Old shafts and quartz heaps are worth investigating. Locals will often point out where previous operators have detected successfully. Usually they will tell you that there is little left, but don't worry, they will have missed some of the smaller or deeper nuggets. The latest high-tech detectors are capable of picking up gold missed by the earlier-model machines. It is far easier for a beginner to find a little gold in a pre-worked area by careful scanning, than it is to find in an untried area. As I said, your new hi-tech machine will beep on deeper nuggets that older machines weren't capable of locating. Remember that generally there are a dozen pea-size nuggets for every coin-size nugget.
5. You should find some gold nuggets in the mullock heaps of old diggings, so scan them carefully and thoroughly. Every patch of diggings has the potential to produce at least a few nuggets. However, there is far more gold left in previously unworked ground and this is where small fortunes can be made. But it will take a little more experience to know where to look. After a while you will be able to recognize the type of ground that has potential. In some areas the indicator may be scattered quartz, in others it may be ironstone or shale. Search in the vicinity of these workings if the ground is still hard or rocky. This unworked ground may have been too poor for the old timers to mine, but may prove productive to you with your detector. If you purchase the latest, deep seeking Pulsed Induction machines with their superior-depth capabilities, it may be wiser to commence your search in undisturbed ground closer to the diggings. This detector will penetrate deeply to find any gold that the old timers left behind.
6. Don't detect in ground that is very deep and soft. Gold, being heavy, sinks down to bedrock which may be out of detector reach. If you look for ground where the bedrock (clay, slate) is less than about 50cm down, all the better, as any nuggets will be within reach of your search coil's ability. After you have experienced some goldfields, you will become familiar with the type of ground that may hold gold. This knowledge will later enable you to do some more ambitious prospecting on the fringes of the goldfields, and even beyond.
7. Years ago, detector operators often used bulldozers to enable them to detect deeper layers of ground. Many gold hunters avoid these worked areas with disgust. That's fine because they will leave the gold for you. Usually there are some nuggets gold left outside the scraped areas. If you detect carefully you will find them. If you were to start your search in or close to a bulldozed area you would be an intelligent beginner. Please remember to always fill in detector holes or the conservationists may move for a ban on metal detectors. For detailed tuition on detecting, I strongly recommend my four training videos, "Nugget Finding Secrets" parts 1 to 4, as they cover a wide range of conditions.
8. With the Gold Snoop Pro, concentrate on areas that are gold producing but where there is a lot of junk. Other operators would have ignored these hi junk areas because their detectors did not have proper discriminators to reject the junk or could not handle the mineralised soils..
9. Who to Go with If you don't know an experienced person, join a fossicker's club to begin with. It's a good way of gaining experience and you will learn quickly by tagging along. Read Gold Gem and Treasure magazine, order back issues and read the lot to get knowledge and inspiration. If you're really serious, spend some money and join a gold safari. This could save you much time and wasted effort, and you will learn quickly.
How To Use Your Detector
1. When you find a promising area (grading's, old diggings, shallow ground), do not detect haphazardly. Choose a small patch, and cover every bit of it. Do this by keeping the search coil at about 1 cm from the ground and swing it slowly. Swing the coil no more than about 1 meter from side to side and move forward no more than the length of the search coil for each swing. If you find nothing, keep trying other areas until you eventually locate a nugget. Then be extra careful, because where there is one, there are usually more in the vicinity.
2. Ignore any wide, gradual changes in sound, they are simply due to ground mineralisation changes. Dig up any short or sharp signals, no matter how faint. They could be small hot rocks, scrap metal or gold.
3. Some detectors are auto ground balance units or don't need a ground balance, like the Snoop series. But if you have a manual ground-balance machine, you may have to re-balance every few minutes, depending on the condition of the ground.
4. When you locate gold, and the surface of the ground is littered thickly with leaves, sticks or rocks, then get your garden rake out and clean up the area. If there are small nuggets about, you will double your success by doing this, for your detector will penetrate deeper into the ground.
5. If the signal is tiny, first scrape a little soil from the indicated spot to one side. If the signal has moved out of the hole, then sprinkle the soil from the heap onto the search coil, a handful at a time. It will beep when the metal object touches the coil.
Bury a small coin sized piece of metal at 10cm. Pass your coil over it and get used to the faint sound it gives off. Practice out the bush or the beach where the ground has little mineralisation, before you attempt to detect the more difficult gold fields.
7. Do not try to cover a large area by impatiently moving from spot to spot. Most beginners make this very mistake. I've seen them charging all over the place looking for the big magic nugget. Concentrate on slow coverage in one spot. If you find nothing after patient and thorough scanning, then try elsewhere. In new, unexplored and undisturbed ground, its best not to be thorough, but zig zag the ground looking for that first nugget.
What Success to Expect
If you follow the outlined steps you should find at least a little gold within a few days, depending of course, on the potential of the area. You may even find large nuggets, although usually that takes more time. However, there are still plenty of big nuggets to be found, even in well-worked (thrashed) areas. You just need to be patient and willing to dig any deep-sounding faint signals. Be prepared to be somewhat disappointed with many of these digs. They could be mineralised charcoal, soil, hot rocks or clay. If you persevere, and experience becomes your friend, you have a chance of finding a small or perhaps a large fortune. Once you gain a little experience you should quickly cover expenses and pay for your detector. Meanwhile relax and enjoy your new hobby. Don't try and rush success, for it will come.
Happy hunting, and welcome to the prospecting family.
Jack