Gold Prospecting - Fisher Labs F70 User Manual

&
OPERATING MANUAL GUIDE TO METAL DETECTING
Detecting Activities (continued)

Gold Prospecting

In the United States, gold is found in many places in
the western states, Alaska, and in a few localities in
the Appalachians. The old saying "Gold is where
you find it", means that to find gold, you should
look in areas where the yellow metal is
known to be present.
Hillsides are the best areas for gold
prospecting using a metal detector,
because hillsides cannot be cleaned
out by panning and dredging the way
streams can. Also, gold on hillsides,
not far from its source vein, tends to be
larger, and hence more readily detected, than alluvial (placer) gold which tends to get pounded
to pieces and worn away as it rolls along the streambed with gravel during floods. Gold is
valuable because it is a scarce commodity. Even in a good gold producing area, you will often
spend an entire day without finding any gold. Meanwhile you will dig bits and pieces of other
metal-- birdshot, shells and bullets from hunting and target practice, bits of rusted barbed wire,
chips off shovels and other mining tools, rusted tin cans, etc. Hot rocks -- rocks containing
concentrations of iron oxides that sound like metal when you pass over them -- are also a
nuisance in many gold areas. Discrimination is usually ineffective because the loss of
sensitivity resulting from discrimination is enough to cause those little nuggets to vanish. If
you have gone many hours without finding gold and are wondering if there is something wrong
with your metal detector or how you are using it, the most important clue is this: if you are
digging tiny pieces of trash metal, then if you had swept over gold nuggets, you would have
dug them too!
Because most gold nuggets are tiny, and are usually found in soil which is high in iron oxide
minerals, serious gold prospecting requires a detector with high sensitivity and true ground
balanced autotune operation. Run the machine with the sensitivity high enough to hear some
noise from ground minerals, and learn the language of the sounds you hear. Headphones are
recommended unless consideration for safety (for instance rattlesnakes) rules them out. Move
the search coil slowly and deliberately, carefully controlling its height above the ground to
minimize noise from iron minerals in the soil. If you hear ground noise, your Ground Phase
could be a bit off, so perform the ground balancing procedure again. As you walk even a very
short distance, ground conditions can change. The ground geology typically associated with
gold will tend to change over very short distances.
The DIRT bar graph indicates the amount of iron mineralization in the soil. In most gold fields,
especially alluvial (placer) deposits, gold tends to be associated with iron minerals, especially
magnetite black sand. If you know this to be the case in the area you're working, you can
maximize your gold recovery by concentrating your effort on areas where the bar graph
indicates higher amounts of iron mineralization.
36