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A golden day in California

25 Jan 2012

California is famous for its moderate weather, but it isn’t always that way, especially in the high country of the Sierra Nevada Range. In early summer, I tried to take a friend over to a patch where I’ve pulled some nice gold. The weather was unusually cold and we were actually blocked by late season snow on the roads. I never got the chance to return during the rest of the summer, but after my visit to Australia, I was motivated to get back up there.

I’d had a great time using some of the new GPX Timings for heavily mineralized soils in Australia and wanted to try them out here at home. The goldfields in the US generally have milder mineralization than those in Western Australia (WA), but while that is a general truth, and there are always exceptions. We saw some mild ground in WA, and I’ve detected heavily mineralized ground here in the US.

Turns out the patch where I was blocked by the summer time snow was just the place to try out those Timings I’d used in WA. The ground there can be pretty rough, and there is a lot of magnetite in the soils. VLFs have a very tough time here and I’d been forced to use Double-D coils in some spots with my GP Extreme. Loud, near surface targets stood out, but it was always difficult to pick fainter signals out of the ground noise – and that’s where the new GPX Timings really shine. I got together with another friend, and as luck would have it, we were having unseasonably warm weather for late October. When we arrived the sun was bright and the temperatures were in the mid-70s (about 23 C) - just perfect for detecting, and as I’d hoped, the newer Minelab detectors powerfully proved their worth.

I was using my GPX 5000 in Fine Gold and Wes was using his GPX-4000 in Sensitive Smooth. I’ve taken about four ounces out of this area, most of it from one small zone about 150 long and 75 feet wide. I’ve pounded that area with my GP Extreme, and with every coil from a little Joey Monoloop to a 20 inch round, using both Double-D and Monoloop coils. I’ve been over the ground multiple times, and others have even come in and scrapped it. As I saw in Australia, the newer Timings can make a significant difference – especially in heavily mineralized soils. In testing the new Timings, we found that with some nuggets, Fine Gold actually gave a significantly stronger response than Normal after the target had been found. This may not be universally true, but for some nuggets, the improvement is more than just quieting down the background mineralization noise.

5 gold nuggets we picked up in California with the new GPX Timings

Here are the 5 gold nuggets we picked up in California with the new GPX Timings for heavily mineralized ground

So even though I’d really beat that spot (as had a few other folks), Wes got 3 nuggets and I managed 2, all from that heavily flogged small area. This was the first time the ground had been exposed to the newer GPX Timings and they really did a fine job of quieting down the chatter of the ground noise which allowed the both of us to pick out good, but comparatively weak targets. With the current high prices, even a few grams crumbed off an old patch is well worth having, and it’s always great to see old patches yield gold to new technology. It was indeed a golden day.

Caption: Chris Ralph

Chris Ralph’s Prospecting Encyclopedia

Comments

G'day Chris, I enjoyed reading this article immensely. Its amazing how much you learn about your detector subliminally when using it every day in new surrounds, by the time the last week of our WA trip came around you were looking more and more like a local.

I was wondering how you would go on your home turf once you got back, its great to see some of the things you experienced with your GPX 5000 here in Australia have been useful to you back in the States, I know I sure learned a lot from you blokes when you were over here.

Out of interest how much Gain were you using when you revisited your patch in the Sierras? We tended to stick to 14 or less whilst in WA so it would be interesting to see if you had to tweak your settings much from what we were using over here.

Regards

JP
Posted By: Jonathan Porter on January 26, 2012 08:08am
Greetings JP – I actually have several spots where I had issues with terribly noisy ground when I was using my old GP Extreme. One I’ve not yet visited is a patch of greenstone with several acres of old timer’s hand stacked rock just down slope below it. That spot is hotter than the one mentioned in the story and was completely unworkable with a Monoloop coil and the GP Extreme. I’ve found a lot of gold with the Extreme, but there is no question the smooth class of Timings, especially “Fine Gold” gives the operator a whole new set of tools for working heavily mineralized ground. As far as gain, I was still using 14. I’ll spend more time up there when the weather warms this spring, and see what the gain can be increased to before it starts bringing back the ground noise. Another interesting thing I am finding is that for certain rough or porous gold, the Fine Gold Timing really does make the signal stronger – more than just quieting down the background mineralization noise. I really did genuinely learn a lot about dealing with difficult ground on my trip to Oz, and we learned quite a bit from you during our “information exchange”. I’m also looking forward to seeing the next installment of your WA video feature. Best Wishes, Chris
Posted By: Reno Chris on January 30, 2012 05:05pm
Hi Chris, yes regardless of ground mineralisation, Fine-Gold is only just behind Sensitive Extra in the sensitivity department, so Fine Gold may be the better timing to use even in lesser mineralised areas where you are able to run Normal. This is the reason why Fine Gold and a small to medium sized mono-loop coil is such a popular (and potent) combination over here.
Posted By: Nenad on February 02, 2012 03:45pm
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