How rare are giant nuggets?

[brucester]

Hello,

Prior to the invention of metal detectors, our primitive ancestors walked about the desert picking up nuggets on the surface using their primitive stone tools.

Then along came VLF detectors, and the scavengers ravaged the lands and collected most of the small nuggets near the surface.

Then the high tech modern monkeys went out with their gpx5000s and found the leftovers that were missed by the early tech humans.

I would like to design a metal detector that uses a higher current and much larger coil that detects monster nuggets deeper than the gpx5000 but ignores all the smaller candy that the gpx5000 would find.

My question is, how rare are these monster nuggets? Its like finding a needle in a haystack. Is it feasible that there are big golden eggs 1 and half to 2m down that minelab cant detect?

Or is this just a waste of time?

I realize that this is more of a geology type question than an electronic question but would appreciate your views on the issue.

[homefire]

Not so sure folks want to dig a Metre down to find that Hot Rock.

I'll just stick with the crumbs!

I can find a few oz of those by the time I ever found the big one that far down.

[Reg]

Your under the assumption that larger is easier to find just because it is larger. Sorry, but that isn't the case. Nuggets big or small vary for many reasons. Some of the key ones are the nugget surface and shape characteristics, the alloy composition and the contiguity of the metal in the host rock.

In simple terms, a large nugget may just act more like a much smaller piece of gold. As such, this actually reduces the true larger pieces of gold that act like larger gold.

Now, even with that, the energy needed to detect an inch or two more is tremendous. So, your idea of building a deeper detector is going to be a big task to say the least.

I know of one engineer that told me he designed or could design a detector that could detect a quarter at 3 feet. Considering the ability of this engineer and his past accomplishments and patents, I am sure he either accomplished or could accomplish this task. How did he do it? I haven't the slightest idea. So, I guess there are ways and means yet to be developed and/or implemented.

Good luck in your endeavor if you decide to pursue this course.

Reg

[sinclairuser]

good question obviously they must exist but i think its more a matter of geology at the local level
what i mean is there must be gold bearing rock fairly close to the surface for it to be eroded out then, that ancient rock must be accessable not 10meters+ deep as it is here in the uk for example here most gold mines were in reality silver,lead,tin even iron mines that produced gold as a bonus within layers this throws up possible problems for us as far as detecting goes as larger nuggets may have silver or copper or even tin in the alloy!
according to the archies(yes i know) gold existed as pebbles in river channels from the last iceage i think this gold was the ancient gold collected by the neolithics through to saxon times say anything bigger than 10mm would have been spotted and collected so from a uk prespective the cricket/base ball size nugget down to 10mm probably exist in ancient river channels but getting down to them is impossible so i would say if you live in a part of the world where gold bearing rock is found give it a go but dont filter out small gold all gold is good but only looking for big bits is waste of time unless you are in certain parts of natal sa,australia or maybe the congo!