Best VLF for Tailing Piles

[Hard Prospector]

Best VLF for Tailling Piles

I've been invited onto a private ranch with two old gold mines with large tailling piles. I have a lot of experience swinging over mountain and desert placer but always avoided taillings 'cause most I'd come across had already been flogged and plowed through. This place is very different as it may have never seen a detector. My question is; should I use my GMT(with 4x6 or 6x10 coil) or GB Pro(5" round or 10"elliptical) Also, any advice on on a systematic approach to work these piles would be appreciated, thanks.....Rob

 

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[sparkydog]

The GMT hands down! This is what it was designed for and it is one of the very best for this. The smaller head will maneuver in and out of the rocks best with only a small sacrifice in depth. Your bigger coil will go a little deeper and cover more ground so the condition of the piles will dictate which to use. (Trial and error). There is a guy on youtube who is working tailings and is pretty systematic in his technique. He pulls off a layer and spreads it out then scans it and repeats as he goes down. Was the gold from this mine free gold or is it in ore like telurides? Either way, the mineral rejection of the GMT and the automatic ground balance will make hunting those piles possible. Good Luck!

 

[Terry Soloman]

GMT with the 4x6. S-L-O-W. If the tailings are small enough to layer, then yes, rake them down.

 

[Hoser John]

A old school TR unit is good for tailing piles also as reverse disc ID is easily achieved as you can set to look for metal(gold,silver,copper) or iron mode for ID to eliminate rocks. Just a bit a info to add to your arsenal as at swaps they run $10-20 and good in tunnels also. Eliminate the garbage and move in for the kill with a good VLF-I much prefer my GB2 or Tesoro Lobo ST but different strokes for differing folks John

 

[woof!]

I'm the guy who designed the GB2, the Lobo ST, the GMT, and the GB Pro. Each has its strengths and its weaknesses.

The GB Pro or Tek G2 equipped with the 5 or 10 inch DD is for most customers and most conditions the best choice for tailings work. It's 4 AM and I don't have time to go into the details, but it is good advice.

That having been said, any one of them can be productive on tailings if you understand what the heck you're doing.

--Dave J.

 

[jmoller99]

Try to find out more about the gold that was mined there - if the gold was tied up in Sulphates - your detector won't see it even if you come across high gold content tailings. Learning to recognize gold ores will help you in the long run.

How did they process it at the site? Cyanide? If so, that may indicate very small particles gold that needed special processing.

In Colorado, at Cripple Creek, most of the gold was tied up in Pyrites (Calaverite in particular) - can't find it with a Metal Detector - but its currently being mined there now (with Cyanide leeching) - the gold can be microscopic in size and still be recovered (a lot of gold in Nevada is of this nature).

 

[nuggetshooter323]

The GMT has the iron probability graph, which works great in tailings. It's the one I use. Also look at the f75 because the VDI is active in prospecting mode, Steve Herschbach has written about this feature on his blog. Another good one for tailings is the MXT, you can use the coin and jewelry mode with a peticular set-up, and the VDI will be active and you can recognize iron, even nails and boot tacks.

 

[nuggeteer]

Hard Prospector,
I've been using the GB Pro for the last five months and it's the only detector I've ever used, so my observations are limited. If you decide to use it, I would suggest the 10" elliptical coil. I don't know what your area is like, but my experience with detecting tailings has been mostly in expanses of old ground sluicings. When I get to these areas, I try to determine if and where the bedrock dips and slopes, even if the bedrock is deep or not visible. I check the troughs between the piles as these gaps will commonly reveal bedrock or shallower sediments. Oftentimes, the tapering of the piles and/or paths of runoff will give me the general direction. Once this is determined, I move downhill from the heaps to where the sediments level out. I detect all of this level area. Once I find gold, I begin to move back uphill and try to find which pile(s) the gold might be coming from. This eliminates some of the guesswork in deciding which piles to dig into. The GB Pro has been an excellent detector in these settings.

Below: a typical area of ground sluicings

 

[Hard Prospector]

Thanks for all the great input, I'll be headed up there in a couple weeks(southern Sierra Nevada) to see for myself.

 

[Floating_Adrift]

What tricks does the Gold Bug Pro have for tailings over the Gold Bug 2?

I'm going to be detecting through tailings in the next few days with my gold bug 2 with the 6.5" coil - will that setup be effective for 4-6" thick quartz/granite rock?

 

[Hard Prospector]

The best detector/prospectors that I know of still use the GB2 for tailing and specimen work. As you know the machine takes lots of practice to balance which "weeds" out the many.

 

[TerryC]

The best detector/prospectors that I know of still use the GB2 for tailing and specimen work. As you know the machine takes lots of practice to balance which "weeds" out the many.

Check out Woof's archive for his FANTASTIC publication on metal detectors. I have both the GMT and the GB2. I prefer the GB2. It has only manual ground balance. The GMT has auto AND manual. On about page 17 of the GMT (Whites) manual, it says to go to manual balance for the TINY gold. Hmmm, seems you're using it like a GB2, now. Let's face it, you are NOT going to find the CHOKER nuggets everytime out. An ounce is an ounce is an ounce, no matter the fineness. I did a video (such as it is) about 3 years back on the GB2 and GMT side by side on the ground targets. It is in the archives. Again, both are dynamite machines but I prefer the GB2. TTC

 

[Steve Herschbach]

Big gold or small gold? My preferred unit for a long time for trashy tailing piles and large gold was MXT. Now using Gold Bug Pro due to lighter weight similar performance. If smaller gold would lean GMT.

 

[augoldminer]

I did a lot of tailing piles in the northern mother load and the only way to do it right is to take down the tailing piles and scan every rock.and run the fines through a sluice.

You would be surprised at the amount of gold that the old timers missed in the muck.

Its even better if the mine was a high grade mine.

 

[kazcoro]

I bet they missed a godly portion of the gold. The price was low, and equipment was build it yourself on site.

 

[unimakpass]

Ok, could someone help me out here with a real green horn question. How would a PI machine work on tailing piles compared to the gold bug pro ect. Thanks.

 

[TerryC]

Ok, could someone help me out here with a real green horn question. How would a PI machine work on tailing piles compared to the gold bug pro ect. Thanks.

This is a legitimate question. I have no experience with a PI "gold" machine but lots of time with VLF and LOR (Lots Of Reading). A VLF tends to go for the small gold... near the surface. The PI works better with the deep and large gold. Both have a place on the tailings piles but since most gold will be very small, I personally would invest in the VLF. Others with PI machine need to expound here. TTC