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In my visit to Randsburg months ago the owners of the claims said they search for black sand and then process the material for gold. They didn't get into detail about what they use to find the black sand concentrations. So, naive questions from a newbie on this, would a gradiometer in small form factor be what is desired to find black sand concentrations in dry river beds - or would a magnetometer be better? I'm thinking that one would know by the visuals where the dry riverbed is - there would be then some value in a tool to help find the concentrates. Could this be accomplished with a hand held wand-like thing held as close as possible to the soil surface, or do you need a much more complicated instrument?
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You might want to consider using a metal detector. The Whites GMT has a mode "Follow the Paystreak" for analyzing ground minerals.
Plus it will find gold. I guess if you are looking for deep deposits a magnetometer is the way to go. -
I have a GMT. Have you used one this way? When I was out there I was trying to find nuggets and got sidetracked by the many bullet fragments....Comment
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I'd really like to hear from someone who has used both a magnetometer and a gradiometer in the field in close proximity to the ground for scanning purposes I describe. A gradiometer seems intended for close proximity uses and I wonder if one can be constructed using one (two) of the magnetometer IC's now popular with 12C interface. Also the Speakesensor FMG-3 document mentions a wire coil affecting performance - does this apply to the IC's as well ( http://www.speakesensors.com/ )?Comment
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A "magnetometer," strictly speaking, measures absolute magnetic field strength. A gradiometer is generally a differential magnetometer, that is, 2 sensors subtracted to give a difference reading. The FMX project I did years ago using 2 Speake sensors was a gradiometer, and many treasure hunting "magnetometers" are really gradiometers. You can detect black sand either way, the gradiometer is just a little more user-friendly.Comment
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Thanks Carl,
What determines the distance between the two sensors in the gradiometer configuration?
Would a handheld mag or grad configuration made using mag IC's be sensitive enough to be of value to a prospector/detectorist?Comment
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