A HUGE NUGGET DETECTOR MARKET

[Tinkerer]

The price of gold is going higher. Many gold mines that were closed, reopen. In Africa and South America there are millions of people who scratch the soil with little more than their bare hands to find a daily 2 grams of gold to survive.
Most of these people simply have no other job opportunities. Digging for gold is their daily bread. The hope to find a large nugget is their hope for a better future.

Do these gold diggers use metal detectors?

Practically none.... why?

Would a nugget detector open new virgin ground for finding gold?

Could they find enough gold to pay for a detector?

What characteristics should a nugget detector have, to be useful for these millions of gold diggers?

Is there such a detector on the market?

If there is none on the market, can we design one?

A nugget detector for the gold diggers who make a living on the gold they find.

Tinkerer

[Carl-NC]

The African market for gold detectors is going gangbusters, at least in some areas. From what you showed me about S America, the gold is too fine to use detectors.

I suspect that in most places the easy initial nuggets are gone, and they are now in a process of scraping and detecting a layer at a time. I expect an "ultimate" PI is not really necessary; a good VLF will do just fine. Extremely durable, perhaps waterproof, very simple to use, good ground handling (auto too).

- Carl

[Tinkerer]

The African market for gold detectors is going gangbusters, at least in some areas. From what you showed me about S America, the gold is too fine to use detectors.

I suspect that in most places the easy initial nuggets are gone, and they are now in a process of scraping and detecting a layer at a time. I expect an "ultimate" PI is not really necessary; a good VLF will do just fine. Extremely durable, perhaps waterproof, very simple to use, good ground handling (auto too).

- Carl

The only existing information about gold digging in South America, is about dredging and sluicing. Because there are no detectors. At least, we can consider a few hundred detectors spread over 1,000,000 gold diggers and 1,000,000 square miles as 0%.
There are several reasons:
-The available detectors are not designed for the harsh environment.
-Most of the diggers can not read and write, much less handle complicated electronic equipment.
-The metal detectors that are available cost too much. I found only one metal detector offered on the local ebay, the price was about US$16,000.

What the diggers could use and afford, is a very simple detector, VLF, as you mention above, but extremely rugged in construction, as well as water proof.
And cheap.

For startup.

About one year later a slightly improved version etc.

Of course, the first detector would need to survive one year of daily hard work, torrential rain, blistering hot sun, and being occasionally used to keep a poisonous snake at bay.

The big difference to existing hobby detectors, is just that. The hobbyists do it for fun, as long as it is fun.
The gold diggers would use it as their daily working tool that needs to cope with the same extremely hard conditions as they themselves cope with everyday of the year.
At least the detector does not get malaria.

Tinkerer

[Vortxrex]

In Southern Oregon & Northern California gold is (sometimes) found as "Pocket" gold. Some of these pockets have been incredibly rich. These are not typical Quartz vein deposits, they are formed by a process called Supergene Enrichment: The Gold is originally deposited as microscopic particles (usually in a Volcanic sulphide deposit) Acidic Rain water dissolves the gold & it is carried in the groundwater until the water reaches a carbon bearing layer (Coal/Shale for example) then the gold is precipitated out of solution & can be built up into Very large pieces.

This process happens over a very long period of time & of course the geologic conditions have to be just right. No doubt many of these rich pockets still exist below the surface (having never been exposed/eroded).

From Grants Pass Oregon south to Happy Camp Ca is prime country for these deposits, but the Geology & Chemical reactions that create them is still not well understood.

If someone came up with a way to detect these by direct/indirect means, or by just identifying the right Geo conditions that created them, that could be as big a treasure as you could ever hope to find

Dave Frank

[Carl-NC]

Tinkerer,

With a new water case I'm designing, I suspect I could make a simple VLF gold detector for as low as $500-600. I suspect this may still be too high for that market.

- Carl

[Tinkerer]

Tinkerer,

With a new water case I'm designing, I suspect I could make a simple VLF gold detector for as low as $500-600. I suspect this may still be too high for that market.

- Carl

Excellent idea.

About the price. How can we put that into perspective?

About 12 grams of gold for a detector, as a tool that increases his income considerably.

The digger needs 2 grams of gold per day to survive.

The digger is happy to pay 6 grams for an hour with a piranha.

Looking at it from this angle, it is a deal.

Tinkerer

[Tinkerer]

In Southern Oregon & Northern California gold is (sometimes) found as "Pocket" gold. Some of these pockets have been incredibly rich. These are not typical Quartz vein deposits, they are formed by a process called Supergene Enrichment: The Gold is originally deposited as microscopic particles (usually in a Volcanic sulphide deposit) Acidic Rain water dissolves the gold & it is carried in the groundwater until the water reaches a carbon bearing layer (Coal/Shale for example) then the gold is precipitated out of solution & can be built up into Very large pieces.

This process happens over a very long period of time & of course the geologic conditions have to be just right. No doubt many of these rich pockets still exist below the surface (having never been exposed/eroded).

From Grants Pass Oregon south to Happy Camp Ca is prime country for these deposits, but the Geology & Chemical reactions that create them is still not well understood.

If someone came up with a way to detect these by direct/indirect means, or by just identifying the right Geo conditions that created them, that could be as big a treasure as you could ever hope to find

Dave Frank

These gold pockets sound very interesting. What is the problem for finding them?

Tinkerer

[Vortxrex]

http://books.google.com/books?id=7Cj...ergene&f=false

Page 29 describes the process. Prospectors were very good at finding these pockets in the 1920's & 1930's, but only if the pocket was on the surface & had eroded visible traces that could be panned.

The problem is how to locate pockets that never outcropped? Perhaps not w/ a metal detector, but by studying geologic maps, sampling groundwater, mapping the natural faults the the water moves along?

Some of these pockets had thousands of ounces of gold in them. How deep can we detect a large nugget/pocket that had several pounds of AU w/ Carl's new VLF

Dave Frank

[Tinkerer]

http://books.google.com/books?id=7Cj...ergene&f=false

Page 29 describes the process. Prospectors were very good at finding these pockets in the 1920's & 1930's, but only if the pocket was on the surface & had eroded visible traces that could be panned.

The problem is how to locate pockets that never outcropped? Perhaps not w/ a metal detector, but by studying geologic maps, sampling groundwater, mapping the natural faults the the water moves along?

Some of these pockets had thousands of ounces of gold in them. How deep can we detect a large nugget/pocket that had several pounds of AU w/ Carl's new VLF

Dave Frank

Thanks for the link. It is very interesting reading.
the science of geology has evolved quite a bit since then, but most of the time the price of gold was relatively low so we can surmise that not too much effort as made searching for the gold lodes.
Carl's new VLF will probably not be designed for searching for deep gold. I think it is more appropriate for virgin territory where the gold lies near the surface.
A geological approach seems to be the best bet for locating possible hot spots.

Tinkerer

[wesam]

The price of gold is going higher. Many gold mines that were closed, reopen. In Africa and South America there are millions of people who scratch the soil with little more than their bare hands to find a daily 2 grams of gold to survive.
Most of these people simply have no other job opportunities. Digging for gold is their daily bread. The hope to find a large nugget is their hope for a better future.

Do these gold diggers use metal detectors?

Practically none.... why?

Would a nugget detector open new virgin ground for finding gold?

Could they find enough gold to pay for a detector?

What characteristics should a nugget detector have, to be useful for these millions of gold diggers?

Is there such a detector on the market?

If there is none on the market, can we design one?

A nugget detector for the gold diggers who make a living on the gold they find.

Tinkerer

I'm not good in English But all I can say( With all my respect)
Sometimes we use copper rods, but it is Useless in many cases to detect

[Tinkerer]

I'm not good in English But all I can say( With all my respect)
Sometimes we use copper rods, but it is Useless in many cases to detect

Hi wesam,

thank you for the feedback.

Do you have gold nuggets in Jordan?

Could you describe the environment where this gold is found?

Could you give some geological background information?

Do you know of any historic information about the gold?

Any pictures?

All the best

Tinkerer

[homefire]

In Sudan, the gold is being found in chunks and large nugget form.

Remember Africa was one of the first continent to be formed.

Mountains have came and gone.

The gold is spread over the deserts as alluvial deposits to the most part.

The same reason diamonds are found in the beach sands of the west coast.

Mountains have been developed and eroded to NOTHING in time.

Time for the Drool Rage!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StRLDNqNJ_o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yhar2op4RM&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj97G...eature=related

[Tinkerer]

In Sudan, the gold is being found in chunks and large nugget form.

Remember Africa was one of the first continent to be formed.

Mountains have came and gone.

The gold is spread over the deserts as alluvial deposits to the most part.

The same reason diamonds are found in the beach sands of the west coast.

Mountains have been developed and eroded to NOTHING in time.

Time for the Drool Rage!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StRLDNqNJ_o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yhar2op4RM&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj97G...eature=related

Homefire, thanks for the feedback.

These videos are fascinating and tell a lot about the working conditions of the gold diggers.

Be it the desert or be it the jungle, we can see that the environmental conditions are extremely harsh.
We can also see that there are lots of people willing to work extremely hard.

Not much technology to be seen, why? There is gold there. In the case of the Sudan, the government seems to be keen to see investment in the gold recovery and wants to get mining companies interested.
In some other countries the digging for gold is illegal and this greatly reduces the incentive for investment.

But the gold is there. Lots of gold is there.

Tinkerer

[homefire]

In one of those videos it's stated that Detector are forbidden and need to be Smuggled in.

Yes they have gold but also a repressive Government it seems.

Import Duties , Permits and Licences could be way over the top?

I really don't know what the deal is.

It looks like the guy with the detector held some special status for sure.

[wesam]

Hi wesam,

thank you for the feedback.

Do you have gold nuggets in Jordan?

Could you describe the environment where this gold is found?

Could you give some geological background information?

Do you know of any historic information about the gold?

Any pictures?

All the best

Tinkerer

you will come Tinkerer
and about gold nuggets we didnt have it here as a large pieces
Studies have been conducted by jordanian Natural Resources Authority in the Southern of jordan thay find Visible gold In several samples of heavy metals reached 40 g / t, and also reached some of the samples to 5 g / t .
The most of peple in middle east interested in old coins That are sometimes buried of several meters .
I do not know if I can get help to get metal detector scheme detects deep meters or if you can give me advise in this regard.
thanks a lot.