Setting up a detector to find black sand streaks

chuckinnc

Jr. Member
Aug 20, 2009
28
5
western,nc
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I saw a video where a detector was used to find black sand veins, they didn't go into much on how to do this and their detector was all
digital which had a graph to show black sand veins. My gold detector is all analog as I am looking for any input from anyone on how to do this. Sure would be nice to let the detector find the best place to take panning samples on dry land or creek less areas.
 

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fmrUSMC_0844

Bronze Member
Sep 4, 2008
1,567
1,104
Mormonville, AKA Salt Lake City, UT
Detector(s) used
Whites MXT Pro, Whites TDI, Keene A52, Calsluice, Gold Hog Piglet
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Metal Detecting
I use a Whites GMT and it has a "Follow the black sand" feature. It basically tells you how mineralized the dirt is. Thats why I have that machine. We dont have chunky gold where I am so I just use the detector to find where I want to start sluicing.
 

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chuckinnc

Jr. Member
Aug 20, 2009
28
5
western,nc
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Thanks

I use a Whites GMT and it has a "Follow the black sand" feature. It basically tells you how mineralized the dirt is. Thats why I have that machine. We dont have chunky gold where I am so I just use the detector to find where I want to start sluicing.

Yep, the person using a detector to find black sand streaks was also using a White's GMT. I guess it's going to take alot of trial and error for me and my old analog detector to find black sands streaks.
 

63bkpkr

Silver Member
Aug 9, 2007
4,069
4,618
Southern California
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XLT, GMT, 6000D Coinmaster
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Since you want to use your detector to find black sands then it seems like you could setup some iron rich dirt and use that to "teach your analog detector" what it needs to find. A test bed, a bunch of powdered iron mixed in different percentages with dirt in a yard (well labelled of course) ought to give you several high to low value areas to learn from, having some other magnetic powder mixed in would help. I also own a GMT, have found gold with it and will find more with it once I have this job of mine under control. Good luck......63bkpkr
 

Goldwasher

Gold Member
May 26, 2009
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Sailor Flat, Ca.
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where ever its noisiest and is the hardest to use, will be the most mineralized or hottest ground. The whole follow the black sand Idea just doesn't work as well as just sampling with a pan. Your trying to find gold not black sand.
 

cpomike13

Full Member
Jul 11, 2015
184
157
SoCal
Detector(s) used
Whites SST
Whites GoldMaster e series
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I have a White's SST, and I found

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cpomike13

Full Member
Jul 11, 2015
184
157
SoCal
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Whites SST
Whites GoldMaster e series
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Yep, the person using a detector to find black sand streaks was also using a White's GMT. I guess it's going to take alot of trial and error for me and my old analog detector to find black sands streaks.


I have a White's SST, and I found a small desert arroyo that had visible black sand streaks, and my detector was picking it up as iron.



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nuggetshooter323

Hero Member
Jul 22, 2005
963
870
Colorado Springs
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The Legend, Anfibio Equinox 900, Gold Kruzer, XP Deus, ORX, Tesoro Tejon, Whites GMT, Falcon MD20, XP MI-6, Fisher F-Pulse, Pulse Dive, Vibra Probe, UniProbe.
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
If you have a Falcon MD-20, it will pick-up black sand. It's a feature that is in the instruction manual. You get a "beep" if you detect a metal target, and the sound goes off right as you go over it. If you go over a mineral like anything that makes up black sand in your area, the MD-20 will not beep when you touch the black sand, but it will beep when you pull it away.
 

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chuckinnc

Jr. Member
Aug 20, 2009
28
5
western,nc
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
If you have a Falcon MD-20, it will pick-up black sand. It's a feature that is in the instruction manual. You get a "beep" if you detect a metal target, and the sound goes off right as you go over it. If you go over a mineral like anything that makes up black sand in your area, the MD-20 will not beep when you touch the black sand, but it will beep when you pull it away.

Thanks, it may be the way my detector works. I will save those black sands, make a test bed to find out.
 

Goldwasher

Gold Member
May 26, 2009
6,077
13,225
Sailor Flat, Ca.
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Detector(s) used
SDC2300, Gold Bug 2 Burlap, fish oil, .35 gallons of water per minute.
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All Treasure Hunting
Um, when your nugget hunting you want a detector that "doesn't" pick up blacks sand. The presence of black sand doesn't mean the presence of gold. You wont know if there is gold in the black sand until you sample it anyway.

Try this take a detectable little piece of gold. something that your detector will Air test at a few inches. And one that has to be within an inch of the coil. Now take those pieces and put it in a pan with a good amount of black sand or in the field find a good visible amount in a wash. Make little finger hole's and put in your piece's

Run your coil over it. See how fun that is making that little piece disappear or wander around your coil. Where on earth did the smallest one go.

Get back to us about hunting black sand.
 

kiwi jw

Full Member
May 8, 2006
239
32
where ever its noisiest and is the hardest to use, will be the most mineralized or hottest ground. The whole follow the black sand Idea just doesn't work as well as just sampling with a pan. Your trying to find gold not black sand.

The principle of the method of finding & following the greatest concentration of the black sand lead in a stream is that the black sand is more than likely the next heaviest element to flood gold & that the two will follow the same or very similar path in the stream. So in this case your detector is the sampling pan with out the back breaking & time consuming effort of actually panning. Once a line or lead of high black sand cons is marked out it isnt too much effort to shovel a run of that lead through a sluice box. If box is set up & running correctly then any colours of gold should show up at the head of the box pretty quickly if it is a known gold producing stream. My 10 cents worth. Cheers. :hello2:

Good luck out there

JW 8-)
 

Hard Prospector

Hero Member
Aug 29, 2012
974
1,386
SO CAL
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SDC2300, Gold Monster, Sierra Gold Trac, GB2, the Falcon......and just as many drywashers
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I've used my GMT's follow the black sand feature to trace the path of black sand/flood gold down through desert washes and it works quite well. However, the Gold Bug's FeO2 bar graph works very well for this same purpose and isn't prone to over-loading like the GMT. Carry a pocket full of poker chips and drop one every time you get a high iron content signal.
 

1637

Bronze Member
May 26, 2011
1,774
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tujunga ca
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xlt mxt gmz and now a gmt whites
funny,i found this thread on the web and it brought me back there to treasurenet 8 years ago.
 

Goldwasher

Gold Member
May 26, 2009
6,077
13,225
Sailor Flat, Ca.
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
SDC2300, Gold Bug 2 Burlap, fish oil, .35 gallons of water per minute.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Yep and after all theses years. It still is not the easiest way to sample for gold.

In fact it will probably have you chasing ghosts.
 

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