Gold Detection and Black Sand

There are several methods to search for the native gold (in dust or nuggets) alongside the rivers.


1. You can randomly stumble upon a deposit by moving tons of sand with your shovel and pickaxe, or slowly pass it through a gold pan or a more sophisticated sluice box. After a day of intense work, you might be lucky to retrieve a few grams of this precious metal.


2. You can also prospect for big gold nuggets with a good metal detector. However, it might take a long time and, most importantly, it is necessary for the gold to exist in the river in the first place, which is not always the case. It might take weeks before you find something.


3. Another, more efficient and effective method is not to look for gold itself, but for the magnetic Black Sand.


That latter method allows for a higher payoff and is less strenuous. We recommend using the magnetometers, especially the popular MAG 505, the most affordable and efficient magnetometer of all. In fact, it is much easier to detect the concentrations of Black Sand for its strong magnetic field than gold itself.


The concentrations of Black Sand are most commonly found on the paths of the rivers or the streams that transport the minerals off the ancient volcanic mountains. If the river is naturally gold bearing, one can find large concentrations of gold mixed with the Black Sand. One of the records of a large concentration of natural gold over 100 kg found within the Black Sand was made in French Guiana. For that reason, this above-mentioned method is the most practical of all in searches for gold in rivers.


The MAG 505

Metal detecting is the easiest way to prospect for gold in areas that are new to you.


The technology in the last decade has mushroomed making detectors cheap, precise, and lightweight. In addition, the energy requirements have dropped drastically. Most detectors now have automatic ground balancing so you can virtually turn it on and go. The latest and most effective technology is the hypersensitive two-flux gate magnetometer the MAG 505 from Deepers Detector Company:


http://deepers.com/English/Mag505.eng.html
http://deepers-detector.com/English/MAG_Description.html

Note: If you are working with a VLF detector, do not use discrimination option. Your target is not gold (unless you search only for large nuggets near the surface) your target should be the Black Sand. The best detector for this work is a magnetometer MAG 505 from Deepers Detector Company.

To use MAG 505 in searches for gold, you must first look for a likely area for gold to accumulate. Look for things located downstream of the apex of the inside bend of the wash. When water flows around the curve, it is restricted and tends to speed up until it reaches the point of the curve where it can begin to expand again and tends to slow down, dropping Black Sand and hopefully gold long the way.


To increase your odds a bit, now that you have found the perfect curve to check, find and remove a boulder and/or detect around the area of its origin. Pay special attention to the area downstream of the boulder. Treat any obstruction to the smooth flow of water around the inside bend as a potential gold trap. A boulder, gravel bar, elevation change, or even a gap along the flow will create a vortex on the downstream side of the irregularity. The vortex, no matter its size, will trap gold if gold was present during the times of water flow.


What we want is the Black Sand, which is a certain indicator that heavy stuff lies here. Using MAG 505 will allow you to detect small changes in ground conductivity and locate the large deposits of Black Sand. Discrimination will remove the response to Black Sand and reduce the sensitivity to gold as well, so do not use it. Dig up the area that the detector indicates all the way down to bedrock and pan or dry wash it as usual. With a little luck, you will find the gold.

TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION


GOLD IS HEAVY AND IS ALWAYS FOUND ON THE BEDROCK

Gold is extremely heavy, six or seven times heavier than rock, and, therefore, it settles on the bottom of the gold bearing streams. The key word here is “bottom”. Gold's excessive weight forces it down-downhill, downstream, down into the sands and gravel, down into bedrock cracks and crevices, and down in your sluice box or gold pan. Gold is assisted in its downward movement by wind, rain, earth tremor, rockslide and agitation. Once gold settles on the creek bed, it will sift downward through the lighter sand and gravel. Because of its weight, it will continue to sink until it reaches bedrock, where it will become trapped in crevices and such.


WATER VELOCITY

Because gold has a tendency to sink, it will concentrate wherever the creek slows down or loses sufficient velocity to drag it further. In other words, if gold is dragged down a mountainside to a deep, motionless pool, it will immediately sink to the bottom. The first principle of prospecting, then, is to search where the flow of water decreases.


Therefore, pay special attention to the edges of whirlpools, at the tail of eddies, beneath waterfalls and in deeper pools. Fine gold is usually found in the shallow areas, and coarse gold in the deeper areas. A popular misconception is that all nuggets sink immediately to the bottom at, or near, its source. This is generally true, but depends a great deal upon the size of the nugget and the flow of the water. For example, a stream flowing at only one-half mile per hour can lift and carry gravel about the size of a pea. At five miles per hour, stones the size of cannon balls will tumble freely. When the velocity is slightly greater than 20 miles per hour, boulders that weigh nearly a ton can be moved gradually. In addition, during spring run-off, the velocity is often much greater than this.


OBSTRUCTIONS

Gold tends to be deposited at any point where obstructions hinder or halt its progress. Large rocks beneath the surface act as natural riffles and can accumulate rich pockets of placer gold. Likewise, a fallen tree trunk or other natural obstruction will impede the gold's progress, causing it to sink. If a tree trunk, embankment or other obstruction projects from the bank into the current, a vortex is likely to form. It is in these deep pools that many of the richest "glory holes" have been found. However, these pools are usually deep, and may be accessible only through the use of scuba gear, underwater dredges, and the like.


SHORTEST DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO POINTS

Again, due to its weight, gold tends to take the shortest route as it is carried downstream. It therefore deposits on the inside of bends and curves in its journey. Then, as these areas tend to lose velocity, the gold sinks to the bottom. Quite often the suspended sand, silt, iron and gold particles will build up until a small drift of sand is formed.


This type of deposit is easily recognizable above or below water, and has accounted for many of the famous “11 gold bars" of past history. The strike at Hills Bar, near Hope in 1858, which touched off the B.C. gold rush, yielded nearly $2 million. Unfortunately, you cannot make much money trying to pan these sandbars. Even a professional gold panner would have a hard time. You will save yourself a lot of wasted effort, sore muscles and discouragement.


BLACK SAND


Black Sand Iron pyrites and Gold



Iron pyrites and Black Sands are good indications of gold. When these are spotted it is always a smart idea to prospect. Black Sands are heavier than surrounding sand and settle much in the same manner as does gold. Therefore, if Black Sands are present, you can be assured that conditions are favorable for placer gold deposits. However, since this principle was well known to early prospectors, it is almost certain that the most obvious Black Sands have already been panned. If this proves to be the case, modern technology may be very useful. A metal detector or a magnetometer can determine the presence of gold and Black Sand deposits beneath the surface, which went undetected by earlier prospectors. Some people search for small nuggets with a metal detector, and many have been successful. However, if you intend to encounter something bigger, more valuable and worth your time, use a magnetometer such as MAG 505, which has proven its efficiency and effectiveness in searches on the land and underwater (the coil is submersible, the electronic box is not).


ANCIENT STREAMBEDS

Over the tens of thousands of years that lodes were being broken up and deposited in streams, the entire topography of the surrounding area was changing. Massive landslides and titanic upheavals frequently dammed up rivers and streams, forcing the water to find alternate routes. When this happened, the former streambeds were left high and dry, and these often contained much-concentrated gold, as can be confirmed by the following example.


During the Cariboo gold rush, two strolling Chinese miners discovered a large area of gold-bearing land just north of Quesnel. China Cut, as the discovery was named, is estimated to have produced nearly $1 million. The discovery was made along the course taken by the Fraser River during the Tertiary era, 70 to three million years ago, and high above the present level. China Cut and the Tertiary Mine, 9 miles north of Quesnel, are the only two places yet discovered where the present Fraser River cuts through the ancient Tertiary riverbed.


So, always be on the lookout for signs of an ancient or dried-up streambed, as it could produce gold beyond your wildest dreams. In fact, if a major new placer discovery were to be found today, it undoubtedly would occur in an ancient, unmined riverbed!


To read more articles and learn about our products visit our website at www.deepers-detector.com


© 2010 Copyright by Deepers Detector, All rights reserved

Treasure hunting tips: Detecting Gold, Silver and Hidden Coins

Generally the Pulse Induction detectors are very sensitive to the presence of ferrous metals (magnetic) and they are less sensitive to other metals. To satisfy our clients, we have incorporated into our Deepers' detectors a Drop Gold-Silver Electronic System that minimizes the prevailing presence of ferrous metals and maximizes the search depth detection for localizing gold, silver, bronze and cooper (and other good electrical conductors).

Strength of the Deepers

Several conducted tests indicate that a little silver chest (5 x 3 x 5 inches), the Deepers MF and Deepers X5 with the hypersensitive search coil, can easily detect when buried at 26 inches in the ground, as well as detect the coins buried at a depth of over 15 inches. The efficiency is unequaled by any other detector on the market, whether it is the VLF or the PI detectors. The Deepers are incomparable.

General characteristics in detection

Plates, ornaments, funeral masks and other objects embossed or chiseled out of gold, silver, copper and any of their alloys, will be detected very well. The Deepers have become the preferred detectors used by professional treasure hunters and archaeologists in countries such as North America, Europe, Columbia, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Venezuela, Guatemala, Mexico and 25 other countries around the world.

Hidden coins are relatively easy to find because the volume of the total mass is taken into account by the detector…it is much better if a chest or pot is broken and the coins are dispersed. Gold and silver ingots are great targets that can be detected even if they are very deeply buried (many treasures have been found around the world with our equipments).

Antique bronze statues can be detected and recognized very easily with the headsets because it gives off a specific threshold. Many archaeologists can confirm this (a roman statue was found 85 inches deep in the ground with the Deepers Search Loop and a deposit of axes, an antique necklace and other bronze objects that date back to the third century before Christ where discovered at 64 inches deep in the Rhone Valley in France.

You should take into account that to find a gold or silver necklace will be very difficult due to the fact that the detector picks up each link by itself… as if the detector was seeing one link at a time. Gold veins (nuggets or speckles of gold at the bottom of a geological crack or deposit) will be localized with success using an elliptic search coil (work must be done carefully to distinguish the echoes). Veins are detected up to 3 ½ yards deep with a super sensitive 1 x 1mt. search loop, you can even follow the direction of the vein from above. To appropriately adjust for gold, silver or copper and their alloys, we recommend working with Deepers MF or Deepers X5 with the knobs on the red dots for maximum strength. The Deepers have a Drop Gold-Silver system that is factory adjusted to always get the best sensitivity for noble metals such as gold or silver. There are no better detectors on the market.

Searches in walls

For searching in old walls, of tunnels, crypts, caverns, ancient houses or mansions, we highly recommend using the super sensitive wand coil specially designed for these cases (optional). This wand coil permits precisely determining the place and form of the target, much like an x-ray would. Pass the wand coil parallel to the wall to be explored, the targets will be found when there is a permanent threshold heard in the headsets or from the speaker while passing over the hidden metal. Depending on the threshold heard, you can recognize the target found and determine its form, whether a nail, a tube… a round shape or rectangular shape which could be a hidden chest with many valuable thing inside.

Never forget: valuable treasures are always buried deep in the ground. Statistics show that over 85% of the treasures that are found are buried between 24 to 48 inches deep. The Pulse Induction Detectors are ideal and indispensable for these kinds of serious and deep searches (treasure chests, war loot, plunderers loot, arms, hidden coins, gold, silver, bronze and hidden jewelry are waiting…).

To read more articles and learn about our products visit our website at www.deepers-detector.com

© 2010 Copyright by Deepers Detector, All rights reserved

Expedition Laperouse

One of the greatest mysteries in the history of the French Navy, is Vanikoro, a tiny island in the Solomon Archipelago in the South Pacific off the coast of Australia. Since 1788 (just a year before the French Revolution of 1789) here lies two ship wrecks of the La Perouse Expedition (the Astrolabe and the Boussole). How two of those flawlessly constructed frigates and operated by expert sailors sunk together, in one place? What happened to the commander Earl Jean-Francois de Galaup de Laperouse, all the sailors and scientists of the time who participated in this epic expedition? Have they built a camp on this island? Have they been able to leave on a makeshift raft? The most important question is what happened to the riches that were on the board of the ships, including the 20,000 gold Louis in a safe to finance the expedition.

Our good friend - professional treasure hunter Jean Claude Tranape was in charge of the detection team, outfitted by the latest at the moment Deepers Detector equipment such as Deepers MF, Deepers 7, Magnetometer MAG 505 and others. The Deepers equipment was chosen for its quality, effectiveness and simplicity of use in very difficult local conditions.

Jean Tranape (left) and Alain Chatillon (right)

Places of the shipwrecks: Passage de Vanikoro, just before the passage of Bruat

Details about the Vanikoro Island.

The highest point on the island is over 700 meters (2,300 ft), high enough to reach and detain the clouds. Due to the abundance in rain, the nature is flourishing and green. Conducting a research in this area is particularly dangerous and difficult due to its actively changing environment. The only way to penetrate the humus (decomposed organic matter) and other mineralized soils is with a Pulse Induction detector, such as those manufactured by Deepers.

Here are some of the exclusive photos from this exciting expedition:

Unfortunatly, we are not able to post all the finds from this expidition, due to their importance, but we are hoping to do so in the future.© 2009 Copyright by Deepers Detector, All rights reserved