How Do I ....???

How to – Prospecting for gold with a metal detector

Most people will over look the fact that there is no one detector out there that does everything so you if you want to cover all your bases properly you will need several detectors. Cost can become a big factor. Although I really like using my Minelab GP3000 and it is worth every penny you will pay for it. Most find it cost prohibitive. Good news is there are plenty of VLF detectors on the market that are great for hunting nuggets. I will always suggest a detector that was designed to hunt for gold if you are hunting gold or one designed for coins if that is what you are looking for. I personally have had great success using the Minelab Eureka Gold and the Tesoro Lobo Super Traq.

Here are some of the areas that a VLF detector can outperform a PI detector. Why? Because not all gold is the same, some gold will be very porous or disseminated throughout the rock. This is gold a PI detector will have a very hard time detecting.

Hard rock dumps are great places to detect with a VLF detector, old timers generally picked out what they could see and left the rest. A word of caution, stay out of the shafts!

Other places to look in the same area, small hand stacked piles of ore on the side of the larger piles. These are pieces of ore that were hand picked for processing.

Shallow bedrock is another good place to look!

Don’t just go over these areas once, every time a new detector hits the market spots like this will produce again. When detecting shallow exposed bedrock areas a VLF detector with a higher frequency is your best bet. The Eureka here was a great choice because of the 3 separate frequencies which allows you to hunt the different depth layers more efficiently. Many a nugget came from this gulch with the Eureka Gold.

Dredge tailings are often overlooked. When detecting on tailings remember most of gold you find will be on top of the piles!

I would always go back and check these areas with a PI detector like the GP 3000 because there are always some nuggets that are just deep enough that you will miss them with a VLF detector.