greendave41

I believe the first specimen is "Angle Plated" Quartz and indicates there was some interesting hydrothermal activity going on. See this a lot in NC. The etching could be the voids left over from Calcite that was dissolved out. Interesting nonetheless.

http://www.johnbetts-fineminerals.com/jhbnyc/articles/minclean.htm It is my understanding Super Iron Out is now that safest and most universal cleaning agent - followed by Oxalic Acid - but this requires a little more effort/materials. When it comes to doing a quick test on a minerals sensitivity to acid - i suggest finding an obscure spot on a specimen and trying a small drop or dab with a Q-Tip of Vinegar or Lemon Juice. Be very careful with your calcites, fluorites, and other carbonates and evaporates. Most quartz and pegmatite minerals are ok with Super Iron Out. Finally - be aware of caliche - it will react to acids - which is good as you want to remove it - but you have to watch closely to ensure the minerals underneath can withstand. -Dave

i'm thinkin rutile on the mineral. Not sure if a vlf would sound off on it or not. -Dave

The majority of these nuggets were gold in quartz specimens. I ran the 11"mono w GPX4500 on the one patch and got no targets where the GB2 later got 13. Many of these were 1" or less, but 2 or 3 were around 3" down. I'm certainly no expert on the subject, but my opinion is that the type of gold (specimen/wire/veiny) was the contributing factor in the GB2 outperforming. -Dave

Appreciate all the comments, it was a blast and wish i could spend another week doing it soon. next goal is to now get that GB2 finally over some east coast gold. As for "the goldfields" you can tell by the nature of the gold, there's still a lot left to be scraped up, so in respect to that aspect, the best I can say is that this is Mojave Desert gold. -Dave

I recently got to spend a week with my dad out in the goldfields. I had been on numerous trips before that had only yielded 2 detected nuggets, so with 6 days to look, my goals were simple. 1. Find atleast 2 nuggets with a detector (size does not matter) 2. I have owned a Goldbug2 for 4 years (primarily used on the east coast, and have yet to get it over a piece of gold). So goal #2 is to find atleast one nugget with the GB2. Well, 20 minutes into day 1 and the GPX-4000 w/ 11" commander mono hits on a small but nice specimen gold piece. Day 2- was spent mostly investigating a recent small patch, did some detecting, but mostly drywashing, 2 sample holes, not great gold, none detected. Day 3- more drywashing in a different wash and explored an area that had yielded some small gold in quartz specimens in the past, perfect spot for the GB2. As luck would have it, found 7 small specimens with the GB2. Both goals checked off 3 days in...success. Day 4- 6 more with the GB2 in the same area. Day 5- spent 5 or 6 hours exploring and then hit an older patch that yielded some larger nuggets, tried the 11"mono and an 18"or 20" with the 4000, no hits. Took the GB2 over, and alas 4 small nuggets. Day 6- explored all day for a lonely isolated nugget with the gpx400 11" mono, no success. All in all, not that i didn't believe before, but I can now say with confidence and firsthand experience that the GB2 is an unbelievable machine. Nothing against the minelabs at all!, but for this situation and type of gold, the GB2 allowed me to come home with 18 pieces of gold (+1 from the drywasher) instead of 1. I ran the 11" mono on the GPX-4000 on the hillside patch that yielded 13 detected nuggets prior to taking the GB2 up there, and didn't have any hits. In the photo, the nuggets circled in the top left, we tested with the GP3500 with the joey coil and only the 2nd from the right within the circle registered a hit. All in all a great time spent with my dad prospecting, great weather and scenery, and gold to carry home. -Dave

I just heard recently someone post about taking the sensitivity back to a 5 or 6 rather than 10 for hitting these fly poop pieces. Can either of you speak to this? Thanks, -Dave

Enjoy. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2600204/The-1-5m-golden-nugget-Worlds-largest-single-crystal-gold-discovered.html

I second Steve's IDs.

Hi all, quick question. I'm about to purchase a used Fisher GBII. Have been told the 6 1/2" coil needs a wire repaired where it meets the coil. Just want to make sure that FISHER is reputable on their repair service and if that is something that is covered under warranty or if it will cost me extra. Just want to hear some opinions before I jump on buying the machine. Thanks, -Dave

Nice Find! Based on the first pic I would say Almandine Garnet. Based on the second pic, I would say Hessonite or Grossular Garnet. Hardest part is that there are so many variations of garnet. http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~adg/adg-pggimages.html -Dave