Black Sand Detector

[Toppossum]

I was wondering if anyone here could tell me what type of detector, or magnetometer, would be best for finding black sand deposits 10 to 40 feet deep. I am interested in using this for placer mining and prospecting. Most of the detectors I have researhed do not have the depth I need to locate deeply buried blacksand. Any ideas or thoughts on this would be appreciated.

[ivconic]

I never tested magnetometer on black sand. But in case it can detect it, than it would present possibly the best choice, for such depths...

[Seden]

Black Sand Detector

Make yourself a proton precession magnetometer from the plans listed on this site.

Randy

[technos]

For this depth I would take core samples.

[Toppossum]

Black Sand Detector

Thanks for the replies. I am trying to do this on a shoe string budget and unfortunately that makes core drilling impossible at this time.

I am considering building a magnetometer, but it has been many years since I built any electronic circuits. I was looking at this unit:

http://www.trifield.com/edcm.htm

Does anyone have an opinion on this meter? It is the least expensive assembled device that I have found so far.

I have also looked at the kit from Fat Quarters Software.

http://www.fatquarterssoftware.com/product.aspx?id=12

But again my fabrication skills may be a bit rusty for this. Do you know how difficult this kit is to assemble, and how well it works?

Thanks again for your help.

[technos]

The other problem is that digging any hole with a shovel deeper than 5 to 6 feet is flat out dangerous. In fact, I would not do it deeper than four feet myself (if I was going to dig a hole). So, even if you could detect deposits deeper, it would not be possible to reach it. Really, a ten feet hole and there is a good chance that the sides could collapse in on you. People really need to recognize that any deeper than a couple of feet and you are undertaking a mining operation and leaving the hobbyist realm.

Every once a while I see a news story about a worker in a whole losing his life in a ditch accident (and in fact had an uncle that this happenned to). Also, being in the west, we would here about somebody getting lost/hurt/trapped in an abandoned mine. But not so much that they have been working to cap them off with concrete seals. Recently somebody got trapped in a local cave and died. They couldn't even retrieve his body and ended up sealing it off.

All I am saying is if you are going to mine, then understand what needs to be done and have the right equipment. Which is removed from hobbyist surface detecting.

[mikebg]

Black Sand Detector

Toppossum,
Deepest seeking metal detectors were invented in Canada by Vaino Ronka. Search for patents issued in that name and read them carefully. One should set up a VLF receiver to verify that in Alberta to adopt any radio broadcasting frequencies below 36KHz. If not considered strong enough signal to customize powerful TX-powered with a voltage of 20V. I already posted on the forum for such an idea TX-powered laptop batteries. Experiments are made in Eastern Europe showed that the method of Vaino Ronka provides unequaled depth of finding sulphides, black sand and gold veins.

[goldfinder]

fat fluxgate mags

I've built the Fat Hdqts fluxgates. They are good and fairly easy to build but I believe a proton precession mag is more sensitive. Check w/ Carl. He's the expert.

Digging deep holes is dangerous as someone else posted. And usually there is not that much black sand with the placer gold except in a few areas of the country, like north of Tucson, AZ where there are billions of tons of black sand and little gold with it. In fact, the back sand there has about an oz per ton of attached to the black sand on a microscopic level. U can even see the gold on the magnetite crystals (black sand is mostly magnetite).

Goldfinder

[Toppossum]

I have cleaned this up as I accidentally double posted.

[Toppossum]

Black Sand Deposits

Thanks for all the information. Alberta (the province in Canada where I live) has been heavily glaciated and most of the gold in Alberta is fine gold found in black sand deposits. There is also a lot od black sand in the the areas in BC where I do some prospecting. I am looking for black sand deposits at various depths to help locate possible old stream deposits and benches. By doing this I hope to extrapolate the original streams channel and where it might be located closer to the surface where it can more easily be accessed.

I am very aware of the dangers of deep hole excavations. My partner has been doing doing excavations for construction, water pipes, etc for several decades. We feel we have the experience to know when to walk a way from a dangerous situation and cut our losses. Believe me no hole is worth our lives or the life of anyone else. Thank you for your concern we will be extremely careful.

I will look at the plans and schematics for a proton precession mag if I can find them. What I build will altimately depend upon ease of assembly and cost.

Thanks again for the input.